Young man working on the dig. Despite this being his first dig, has no particular interest in archaeology and a self-professed skill for forgery. Carl Reiter – A young American from Chicago. Spending his first year on the dig as a photographer, and noted for being frequently subjected to ridicule by Mrs Leidner. Father Lavigny (Raoul Menier) – French cleric, new to the team. A specialist in epigraphy, old languages. Abdullah - A servant that seems to be gossiping out at the courtyard during the time of the murder. Literary significance and reception The Times Literary Supplement of 18 July 1936, summarised in its review by Harry Pirie-Gordon the setup of the plot and concluded, "The plot is ingenious and the first murder very cleverly contrived but some will doubt whether Mrs Leidner, as described, could have been so forgetful and unobservant as to render the principal preliminary conditions of the story possible." In The New York Times Book Review (20 September 1936), Kay Irvin wrote: "Agatha Christie is a past master, as every one knows, in presenting us with a full assortment of clues which we cannot read. And there are mysteries within mysteries among this quiet yet oddly troubled group of scientific workers, one of whom must have been the murderer; it is part of the author's skill to make us feel that every human character is a little mysterious, and that when crimes are committed among a group of apparently well-bred and cultivated people every one of them may be suspect. Agatha Christie's expertness in building up her detective stories, as such, to astonishing (though sometimes very far-fetched) conclusions has more or less over-shadowed her amazing versatility, not only in background and incident, but in character-drawing and actual style. The story here is told by a trained nurse – as has been done by other eminent mystery novelists. Nurse Leatheran holds her own with them all. This latest Christie opus is a smooth, highly original and completely absorbing tale". In The Observer 12 July 1936 issue, "Torquemada" (Edward Powys Mathers) wrote that "Agatha Christie tells a humorous, well-observed story amongst the ruins of Tell Yarimjah, and her latest method of murder, which got me guessing and guessing fruitlessly, has, as usual, more the simplicity of a miracle than the complication of a conjuring trick. Poirot as a man is quite as delightful as ever, and Poirot as