For many years before World War II, Agatha Christie accompanied her archaeologist husband, Sir Max Mallowan, on his expeditions in Iraq and Syria. Here, in a most unusual kind of travel book, she has written an informal and witty description of how you lived when digging up the past in the Middle East. " "Join the great mystery writer as she boards the Orient Express for Syria. Share her surprising adventures as she and her archaeologist husband unearth artifacts from the ancient past to solve the mystery of how people lived 5,000 years ago. Meet her engaging friends - the native servants who found her an employer problem. . . the sheikh who offered to share everything he owned, for a price. . . the houseboy, fired by equine passion, who rode triumphantly into the local barber shop. . . the irate proprietress of a thriving brothel whose Christian piety paid off. . . the handsome, full-blooded Kurdish women who were a shocking taunt to the dignity of Arab men. Most especially, meet Dame Agatha herself - a warm and witty observer of the human condition as it was and may never be again - as she sets out to solve her favorite mystery . .life.192PP, 8PP Photos.