Agatha e la maledizione di Ishtar

This, the second story to imagine authoress Agatha Christie to be caught up in a murder mystery of her own, sees her travelling to Iraq to stay with friends at an archaeological dig. Before she gets there young archaeologist, Max, finds a body. This is put down to a snake bite but it soon becomes apparent that something is afoot. When Agatha arrives she finds Max injured by a bullet wound in the head and not long afterwards when she gets to the house where those involved in the dig are staying a pet monkey is found hanged! She thinks this is more than mere animal cruelty so, with the help of Max, performs an autopsy. The results make her certain that the dead man was killed something other than a snake. In the investigation that follows she grows close to Max while exposing a plot to steal artefacts and ultimately identifying the killer.

If you can get beyond the conceit of placing a real crime writer in a fictional murder mystery this rather fun. This fictionalised Agatha is a good protagonist and the mystery provides plenty of suspects. As well as the central mystery there is a degree of romance which doesn't distract from the main story. The thing that surprised me most about this production was the degree of humour; there were laughs from start to finish. These were unforced rather than obvious gags and added to my enjoyment. The cast is solid, most notably Lyndsey Marshal who is charming as Agatha and Jonah Hauer King, who plays Max. Obviously it couldn't be filmed in Iraq but the Maltese locations used have a suitably Middle Eastern look. Overall I'd certainly recommend this to fans of classic murder mysteries.