In Murder in Mesopotamia, Nurse Amy Leatheran travels to an archaeological dig in Iraq to care for the wife of the dig leader, Dr. Eric Leidner. Mrs. Leidner is nervous and fearful, and has been receiving threatening letters from her deceased first husband. When Mrs. Leidner is murdered, Leatheran teams up with detective Hercule Poirot to unravel a plot of obsession, jealousy, and revenge.

The book is the fourteenth Hercule Poirot mystery by Agatha Christie.