Appointment with Death (Hercule Poirot, #19)

An assorted group of travelers are staying at a Jerusalem hotel: Lady Westholme and her companion, a young English doctor and her French colleague, a debonair American and a pugnacious Lancashire man. Another guest, Mrs. Boynton, is a domineering American invalid with four stepchildren in tow whose façade of devotion masks enough hatred to contemplate murder. Special mention should be made of the doctor whose affection for Mrs. Boynton's son Raymond is being obstructed by the old lady.

When Mrs. Boynton is found dead, all are suspects even though she was ill enough to die a natural death. Just when the tension becomes unbearable, the doctor discovers essential evidence about Mrs. Boynton's devilish plan to possess and torment the children in death as in life.

We should add that, holidaying in Baghdad at the same time, is the well known Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot.