The Gate of Baghdad audiobook

3.5 The Gate of Baghdad: Parker Pyne Short Story (audiobook) by Agatha Christie read by Hugh Fraser. This is my first Parker Pyne story. The setting was interesting and now I’m going to have to read some longer stories to get to know the character better.

This was a pleasant deviation from the usual Parker Pyne formula which was getting a bit repetitive as I was reading the stories one after the other as part of a collection. The typical Parker Pyne story centres around Pyne finding some comically original way to remedy the unhappiness of a given client. In doing so, he may enlist the help of his employees Madeleine de Sara, Claude Luttrell or even the famous Ariadne Oliver. 'The Gate of Baghdad' however, is wholly different. For one, Pyne is not approached by any client; nor does he undertake any mission. And secondly, it's a murder!If there's one thing I love, it's a good old murder mystery. Now this twenty-page-long short story is in no way as exciting as a Christie novel, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. It was especially refreshing after the bad-to-mediocre stories that unfortunately preceded it in the collection.

4 Stars. Parker Pyne doesn't get involved in many serious crimes; this is the first with murder on the menu. As a short story, it's not bad. I read it in "Mr. Parker Pyne, Detective" from 1971 - a collection of 12 of the 14 stories. It first appeared in 1933 in "Nash's Pall Mall Magazine." An audio version came out this century which may have added extra information about two of the characters. Unsure. Pyne is travelling from Damascus to Baghdad by motor coach, a 1930s mini-bus. Thirty six hours to cross the desert. No camels anymore, but they don't get stuck in the mud after a sudden downpour! The bus did. There are 11 others on the 6-wheeler: the young Netta Pryce and her stern aunt, three British Air Force officers, O'Rourke, Loftus and Williamson, two civil servants in Baghdad's pubic works department, Hensley and Smethurst, a Signor Poli who was on the same ship as Pyne from Brindisi, Italy to Lebanon, an Armenian mother and her adult son, and the driver. There's a hint throughout that one of the men could actually be the infamous Samuel Long, the bank embezzler, fleeing London. Which one, if any? Can you catch the clue? As usual, I missed it. (August 2021)

Whilst on holiday a woman finds out the bank where all her savings are held has crashed due to fraud. She discusses it with Parker Pyne, who has made a career out of helping people solve their problems, and he advises her to continue on the part of the trip she’s already paid for and sort it out in the next city.Meanwhile newspapers report the thief is in South America. Pyne comments that if it was him he’d be on the other side of the globe. [like Baghdad, eh?]New people join their group and they all pile into a truck for the first part of their journey. When they arrive at the fort in a storm, one of the party is dead.Captain Smethurst had been drunk and depressed in a nightclub the night before when he had hinted at a mystery to Pyne.***A sock full of sand as a cosh? Clever… but not actually the murder weapon.I’ve not heard of Pyne but evidently he starred in another series of short stories that usually didn’t involve murder, ‘Parker Pyne Investigates’.The sound effects people clearly had a great time with this one.4 stars

A woman travelling the world discovers that he banker defrauded all his clients and left her destitute, but she's advised to go on one last adventure which she has paid for. Her fellow tourists joked the banker could be anywhere, and maybe he was one of them. He is. And one of them ends up dead.I listened to the BBC radio mystery. Not only is this a great short story, but the sound effect people had so much fun with it, I've never listened to an audiobook which felt more lively.

Great misdirection.

A good short story, unfortunately made slightly distracting as one of the characters is voiced by Hyacinth Bucket.

Quick listen on audiobook - it had a number of cast members which made it very entertaining to listen to.

A good Parker Pyne short story. But, it really was not his typical kind of story . He does not usually get involved in deductive reasoning.