MURDER IN MESOPOTAMIA. A Poirot Story.

First edition, first printing. Original orange cloth with black titles to the spine, in the Robin Macartney illustrated dustwrapper. A very near fine copy, the binding square and firm, bright and fresh with just a little bumping at the spine tips. The contents are clean throughout and without inscriptions or stamps. Loosely laid in is a Crime Club postcard. Complete with the lightly rubbed and nicked dustwrapper that has a couple of tiny chips at the fold corners and very mild toning of the spine. Not price-clipped (7/6 net to the lower front flap). An exceptional example in entirely original condition.

A Hercule Poirot novel set at an archaeological excavation in Iraq. The first edition was published in the UK in June 1936, the American edition was issued the following year. This was the first of four of the author's books to carry a dustwrapper designed by the excavation architect Robin 'Mac' Macartney, who accompanied Christie and her archaeologist husband Max Mallowan to the Middle East. "Mac is doing a sketch. It is a sketch of the mound – a highly formalized view, but one which I admire very much. There are no human beings to be seen; just curving lines and patterns. I realize that Mac is not only an architect. He is an artist. I ask him to design a jacket for my new book" - Agatha Christie Mallowan: Come Tell Me How You Live (1946). (Hubin; Wagstaff & Poole; Curran, John: The Hooded Gunman).