Murder in Mesopotamia was first published in the UK on 6 Juy 1936 (and later in the year in the US).
Agatha Christie had become interested in archealogy during a 1928 trip to Iraq (while traveling on the Orient Express) and in February 1930 met archaeologist Max Mallowan, whom she married later in the year.
Christie used her experience from the 1930 excavation at the ancient Mesopotamian city of Ur for the novel, which was released to mostly favorable reviews (though many noted that the novel moves from plausible to inconceivable by the end).
