They Came to Baghdad

In these days of increased awareness of the Middle East, it's fascinating to hear Agatha Christie's view of Iraq just after WWII. Albeit, one learns about Iraq by way of a mystery story featuring archaeologists, British agents, and a plucky English girl, but that just means one is learning while being entertained. One wishes that the narration were quite as good as the far-fetched but engaging plot. The difficulty is not the narration per se, which Emilia Fox reads beautifully. She also supplies an appealing, believable voice for Victoria, the Cockney heroine. It's most of the (many) male characters that give difficulty, for in seeking to give each a unique character-driven voice, Fox often makes them sound squeaky. As a result, many of the male characters have higher pitched voices than the female characters. This distracts from an otherwise admirable reading of a delightful entertainment. A.C.S. (c) AudioFile 2005, Portland, Maine