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It’s official. Three teams have clinched playoff spots, meaning there are nine left to fill with 11 days remaining in the 2025 regular season.

For the second consecutive year, the Brewers clinched the season’s first postseason spot. They were followed by the Phillies, who first clinched a berth and won the National League East title for the second straight year the following night, and then the Cubs.

Now, we wait to see who’s next.

It’s just a matter of time before additional clubs lock up berths — such as the Blue Jays and Dodgers — but others still have a lot to play for. In the past week, we’ve seen the Mariners go on a run that has vaulted them back into first place in the division, while the Mets suffered a losing streak that almost dropped them out of the playoff picture entirely.

Some of these playoff races will go down to the final days of the season. Get ready for some exciting baseball!

Our expert panel has ranked every team based on a combination of what we’ve seen so far and what we already knew going into the 162-game marathon that is a full baseball season. We also asked ESPN MLB experts Buster Olney, Bradford Doolittle and David Schoenfield to weigh in with an observation for all 30 teams.

Week 24 | Second-half preview | Preseason rankings

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Record: 93-59
Previous ranking: 1

The Brewers were the first team to clinch a postseason slot this season, but they have no time to rest on their laurels. Topping the remaining to-do list is the quest to hold off the Phillies for the NL’s top seed, which could be key if the teams meet in the NLCS given how dominant they’ve both been at home. If Milwaukee does that, it’ll also tick off its other major remaining items: breaking the franchise mark for wins in a season (96, set in 2011 and tied in 2018) and clinching the NL Central title over the pesky Cubs. — Doolittle

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Record: 91-62
Previous ranking: 2

The Phillies clinched their second straight NL East title with a 10-inning win at Dodger Stadium on Monday. Kyle Schwarber hit his 53rd home run and Harrison Bader stole third base in the 10th, setting up the go-ahead sacrifice fly. That led to a raucous postgame celebration. Bryce Harper drank apple juice while his teammates had some stronger refreshments. Then they rallied for another dramatic win on Tuesday as backup catcher Rafael Marchan hit a two-out, three-run home run in the ninth following an intentional walk to Bryson Stott. The Phillies look ready for October. — Schoenfield

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Record: 89-63
Previous ranking: 5

Toronto’s chances of winning the American League East stand at an overwhelming 95.6%, per FanGraphs, leaving manager John Schneider to deliberate over how to arrange his playoff rotation. Kevin Gausman seems to be the most logical choice to start in Game 1, and after that, Schneider has a wealth of options: Shane Bieber, Chris Bassitt, Max Scherzer, Eric Lauer and now rookie Trey Yesavage, who was dominant in his MLB debut on Monday. Other teams should be jealous of the Jays’ depth. — Olney

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Record: 85-67
Previous ranking: 3

It’s easy to focus on what Shohei Ohtani is doing in the regular season and what role he might fill in the playoffs. But the Dodgers have the serious business of winning the NL West again to still take care of. The stakes are huge. Barring collapses elsewhere in the circuit, the winner of the West is going to be a 3-seed and the second-place team is going to be No. 5. Thus the Dodgers will either get to host the struggling Mets (probably), or they’ll find themselves playing the first round at Wrigley Field against a hungry Cubs team that has been playing well. — Doolittle

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Record: 88-64
Previous ranking: 7

The Cubs aren’t out of the NL Central race just yet, but even if that pursuit comes up short, they are in solid position to be the league’s top wild card — and secured a playoff berth Wednesday with a win over Pittsburgh. The offense has been ticking up a little over the past couple of weeks, though the improvement hasn’t included first-half standout Pete Crow-Armstrong. He has been better than he was in August, but given his .446 OPS that month, the bar was low. Overall, his second-half OPS sits at .625. When the Cubs were roiling the scoreboard earlier this season, it was PCA leading the charge. North Siders would feel a lot better about the coming postseason if he is able to heat up over the last few days of the season. — Doolittle

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Record: 85-67
Previous ranking: 4

The Tigers’ rotation struggles behind Tarik Skubal have been a little surprising, given the veterans on the roster. But that doesn’t mean manager A.J. Hinch will be without weapons in the playoffs. “You know how A.J. is — he’s going to mix and match from game to game,” said one evaluator. And the Tigers have developed or acquired a lot of bullpen options, including Troy Melton, Jose Urquidy (who pitched 1⅓ innings Sunday) and, they hope, Kyle Finnegan and Paul Sewald, who are working their way back from injury and are expected back soon. — Olney

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Record: 85-67
Previous ranking: 6

Jose Caballero had started six consecutive games at shortstop for the Yankees before Anthony Volpe started Tuesday’s game, notching two hits. It appears there is effectively an open competition at the position: Whoever plays better will play. With Volpe eligible for arbitration for the first time this winter, and with prospect George Lombard climbing (and thriving) through the farm system, it’s unclear who the Yankees’ shortstop will be in 2026. — Olney

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Record: 83-69
Previous ranking: 12

You may have heard that Cal Raleigh is having quite the season. He hit his 55th and 56th home runs in the same game Tuesday, passing Mickey Mantle for the most home runs in a season by a switch-hitter and tying Ken Griffey Jr.’s club record with No. 56. Suddenly, Aaron Judge’s AL record of 62 home runs is back in play if Raleigh can mount a furious finish.

Oh, and the win in Kansas City, which has been a house of horrors for Seattle in recent seasons, was also the Mariners’ 10th in a row. Dominic Canzone went 5-for-5 with three home runs in the same game, becoming the fourth player in 2025 to reach those totals and just the 45th player to do it in the majors since 1901. (No player has done it twice.) The only other Mariner to do it was Mickey Brantley in 1987. (Mike Cameron didn’t have five hits in his four-homer game.) — Schoenfield

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Record: 83-69
Previous ranking: 9

Will the Padres’ vaunted bullpen hold up over the stretch run and into the playoffs? Their rotation has been hit or miss for a month now, which only increases the load for a stacked bullpen fortified by the trade deadline acquisition of Mason Miller. Miller has been phenomenal as a Padre and it’s a good thing, since Jason Adam went down with an injury, Jeremiah Estrada has had a rough month in the gopher ball department and Adrian Morejon has struggled in September. Can the unit that so many viewed as the Padres’ October trump card regain its menace? — Doolittle

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Record: 83-69
Previous ranking: 8

When the Red Sox took the first three games of a four-game series against the Yankees in late August, New York manager Aaron Boone was asked how Boston had improved during the season. “Roman Anthony is pretty good,” he replied, noting the difference the lefty-hitting rookie made. Since Anthony has been out of the lineup with an oblique injury, Boston is now feeling his absence in a significant way. In 35 games before he got hurt, he had a .326 average, and the Red Sox were 22-13. Since his injury, the Red Sox have gone 5-7, averaging less than 4.0 runs per game. — Olney

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Record: 84-69
Previous ranking: 10

Just when you thought the injury list couldn’t get any longer for the Astros, Yordan Alvarez sprained his ankle while scoring a run in Monday’s win over the Rangers and will miss significant time. Alvarez had returned three weeks ago after missing 100 games with a broken bone in his hand. Rookie Zach Cole, playing just his fourth MLB game, replaced Alvarez in the lineup and hit the go-ahead home run, then added an RBI single. The Astros beat the Rangers again Tuesday as they held on for a 6-5 win after leading 6-0. Houston’s crucial week of AL West action will continue when the Mariners come to town for the battle for first place. — Schoenfield

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Record: 79-74
Previous ranking: 13

The Rangers got to within two games of first place in the division after winning the first two games against the Mets over the weekend to extend their winning streak to six in a row. It looked like the seventh consecutive win was in reach after the Rangers scored twice to force extra innings in Sunday’s game, but they couldn’t score in the top of the 10th and rookie Luis Curvelo served up the walk-off home run to Pete Alonso. Two losses to the Astros followed and the Rangers fell behind Cleveland in the wild-card standings. They might have to go 6-0 on this upcoming homestand against the Marlins and Twins to even have a chance at the postseason. — Schoenfield

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Record: 78-74
Previous ranking: 11

The wild, topsy-turvy, frustrating, unpredictable year continues for the Mets as they desperately try to hang on to the final wild card. They lost eight in a row before Pete Alonso perhaps rescued the season with his 10th-inning walk-off home run to beat the Rangers on Sunday. An eight-run outburst against Padres starter Michael King followed in New York’s next game. If the Mets are to hang on, the rookie starting pitcher trio of Nolan McLean, Jonah Tong and Brandon Sproat will play a huge role. McLean continues to take over as the rotation ace while Sproat’s second career start was a beauty — six scoreless innings against the Rangers. — Schoenfield

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Record: 80-71
Previous ranking: 15

You really can’t apply logic to what’s going on with the Guardians these days, but here’s what’s left on the table for them as they try to press Boston for the last wild-card berth in the AL: four games in a weekend series in Minnesota, including a doubleheader Saturday, followed by six home games next week against the Tigers and Rangers. Keep in mind that Detroit is likely to be focused on preparing its rotation for the postseason, so Cleveland won’t see a full dose of Tarik Skubal, in all likelihood. — Olney

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Record: 77-76
Previous ranking: 19

Arizona’s playoff odds dropped precariously close to zero near the end of August. Given the Diamondbacks’ deadline-related activity, which included trading a corner infield combo (Josh Naylor and Eugenio Suarez) who combined for 47 homers and 146 RBIs before being dealt, that was no surprise. What’s happened since is Arizona has climbed back to the outer perimeter of the wild-card race. How? The sagging Mets, a red-hot offense and the amazing Geraldo Perdomo, for whom you can make a solid case as the NL’s No. 2 pick on the MVP ballot behind Shohei Ohtani. — Doolittle

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Record: 76-76
Previous ranking: 14

A tough series at Arizona probably sapped the Giants’ second-wind playoff chase, though all is not yet technically lost. But even if the postseason is out, Giants fans can focus on powerhouse Bryce Eldridge, summoned in mid-September for his big league debut. Eldridge began the season at Double-A and later moved up to Triple-A, where his results were a mixed bag. But the Giants had a need at first base and so took a chance that Eldridge — listed at 6-foot-7 and 240 pounds — is ready to make some McCovey Cove splashes at age 20. — Doolittle

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Record: 76-76
Previous ranking: 17

For now, Reds fans can continue to fixate on the wild-card standings. That’s more to the largesse of the Mets — who stubbornly refuse to put a hammerlock on the NL’s 6-seed — than anything Cincinnati has done. But the standings are what they are, and if the Reds catch fire, they might yet play some October baseball in Terry Francona’s first season managing the club. Their remaining schedule is tough, though: four home games against the Cubs, a possible breather against Pittsburgh, then three games in Milwaukee, owner of baseball’s best record. — Doolittle

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Record: 76-76
Previous ranking: 16

Though their chances of making the playoffs are all but zero, the Royals are still playing meaningful baseball, which is surprising given the volume of injuries they have sustained with their rotation this year. But here they are. Meanwhile, Salvador Perez has reached a couple of major benchmarks, mashing his 300th career homer (he’s now at 302) and notching his 1,000th career RBI (now 1,008). As former teammate Eric Hosmer wrote on Twitter: “HOFer on and off [the field]. If you disagree meet me in the octagon.” — Olney

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Record: 74-78
Previous ranking: 18

Barring a binge of wins down the stretch, the Rays are not going to reach the playoffs this year, but they have a superstar in the making in third baseman Junior Caminero, who will likely get some top-10 MVP votes. Since the All-Star break, Caminero has clubbed 21 homers with 48 RBIs and an 0.919 OPS in 55 games. — Olney

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Record: 74-79
Previous ranking: 20

To be frank, the Cardinals haven’t given their fans many reasons to remain engaged until the end of the season. Their playoff chances are spent and, as they play out the string, the September call-ups don’t involve elite prospects. Maybe the focus will be on the rumor mill with an eye toward what will happen when this ho-hum campaign finally draws to a close. We know that baseball operations chief John Mozeliak will be handing the baton to Chaim Bloom. What other changes may be in store? — Doolittle

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Record: 71-81
Previous ranking: 23

What more can Nick Kurtz do in his rookie season? How about blasting a titanic 493-foot grand slam Saturday that soared over the batter’s eye in center field at Sutter Health Park. It was the longest home run in the majors this season, the longest by an A’s hitter in the Statcast era (since 2015) and the longest grand slam in the Statcast era. Kurtz has slowed down a bit in September, but his OPS continues to hover just above 1.000, trailing only Aaron Judge and neck and neck with Shohei Ohtani. — Schoenfield

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Record: 72-80
Previous ranking: 21

Baltimore was eliminated from playoff contention Tuesday, a quiet ending to a season that began with such lofty expectations, following seasons of 101 and 91 wins in 2023 and 2024, respectively. The Orioles’ greatest challenge this winter will be to build a pitching staff behind Trevor Rogers with the likes of Dean Kremer, Tyler Wells and perhaps Grayson Rodriguez. They have a number of arbitration-eligible players, but not a single starter or reliever under contract for 2026, 2027 or beyond. Money talks. — Olney

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Record: 70-83
Previous ranking: 22

Matt Olson homered in four straight games and has been red-hot in September, hitting well over .300 with an OPS over 1.200. He quietly has had a terrific season, leading the NL in doubles (tied with Freddie Freeman), and he has a chance to get to both 100 runs and 100 RBIs for the third time in his career. His 6.2 WAR is fourth among NL position players. No, it’s not 2023, when he led the NL in home runs, RBIs and slugging percentage, but he has a good case as the best first baseman in the majors in 2025. — Schoenfield

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Record: 72-80
Previous ranking: 24

One thing to look forward to in 2026: Sandy Alcantara has looked much more like the pitcher he was before his Tommy John surgery, with a 3.09 ERA over his past 10 starts and 2.48 over his past six. While his 5.53 season ERA is still high, his OPS allowed is 0.712, not much higher than it was in 2023 (0.693). No, those aren’t anything close to his Cy Young numbers of 2022, but hopefully he can provide a stabilizing force next season to a rotation that has struggled overall with injuries and inconsistency and ranks 28th in ERA. — Schoenfield

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Record: 66-86
Previous ranking: 26

By season’s end, Byron Buxton is likely to surpass career highs in plate appearances, hits, home runs and RBIs, among other categories. For years, he has been viewed through the prism of potential — what he might accomplish if not for the many injuries he has incurred in his career. Buxton has mostly stayed on the field this year and has likely set himself up for some top-10 votes on the AL MVP ballot. — Olney

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Record: 69-83
Previous ranking: 25

The Angels’ woes continue as Seattle’s four-game sweep put them into last place behind the A’s. While they won’t reach last year’s franchise record 99 losses, they’ve locked in a 10th straight losing season. On the bright side, Jo Adell continues to mash home runs and is up to 36 on the season, although his overall value remains just 1.5 WAR due to a low OBP and subpar defensive metrics. (It hasn’t helped that the Angels have played him regularly in center field, a position he shouldn’t be playing.) Still, it’s been a nice season for the former top prospect, who entered 2025 with a career OPS+ of 79 spread across five seasons. — Schoenfield

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Record: 65-88
Previous ranking: 27

Can Paul Skenes get his ERA back under 2.00 before the end of the season? His last outing (three runs and seven hits allowed over 3⅔ innings) was his poorest of the season, raising his ERA to 2.03. Pirates manager Don Kelly said that the outing would be Skenes’ last home start, and it’s up in the air whether he’ll get one or two more turns since Kelly has been using a six-man rotation. Let’s hope it’s two because Skenes Day is really all Pirates fans have to look forward to at this point. If he gets back under 2.00, he would become just the fifth pitcher to finish with a 1-something ERA over at least 100 innings in each of his first two seasons. — Doolittle

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Record: 57-96
Previous ranking: 29

It’s possible — but unlikely — that the White Sox will avoid 100 losses; they would have to win six of their final 10 games in order to make that happen. Either way, it’s been a season of laying foundational pieces, none more important than shortstop Colson Montgomery, who hit 18 homers in his first 61 games in the majors (and counting). One of the challenges for the 23-year-old lefty-hitting shortstop is going to be performing better against left-handed pitching — he’s 11-for-62 (.177) against lefties with four walks. — Olney

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Record: 62-91
Previous ranking: 28

The Nationals are going to need a complete overhaul in the offseason as they inch closer to 100 losses. Even James Wood and MacKenzie Gore have struggled in the second half. With 209 strikeouts, Wood has a shot to break Mark Reynolds’ MLB record of 223 set in 2009. The rotation ERA has increased from 4.77 in the first half to 5.92 in the second as Jake Irvin and Mitchell Parker have seen their season ERAs creep closer to 6.00. Parker has an 8.26 ERA since the beginning of August and has allowed at least one home run in nine consecutive starts. Irvin has a 7.78 ERA since late June. They shouldn’t be in the rotation, but the Nationals don’t have any other options. — Schoenfield

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Record: 41-111
Previous ranking: 30

What should Rockies fans watch the rest of the way? The one-word answer: Broncos. But that’s too easy. So here’s this: One thing that is remarkable about this team is that it has drawn nearly 30,000 fans per game this season. That works out to around 55,000 per win in the overall standings. During their first two seasons in MLB, playing at Mile High Stadium, the expansion Rockies drew around 63,000 fans per win. If the Rockies can lose out while drawing an average of 45,000 fans during their remaining home games, they can just eke over the 60,000 fans-per-win mark for the first time since those expansion years. Then we can all rejoice. — Doolittle

EA Sports has revealed the stars getting special items in Madden NFL 26 Ultimate Team as part of Team of the Week 2. As with previous iterations of the franchise, TOTW is a program that runs alongside the NFL season and delivers weekly content releases featuring athletes who’ve had standout performances in the previous week’s games.

TOTW 2’s Limited Editions (LTDs) sporting 89 OVR are Green Bay Packers TE Tucker Kraft and Detroit Lions safety Brian Branch. Kraft earned his LTD with six receptions, 124 receiving yards, and one touchdown. Branch had six tackles, one sack, one interception and one forced fumble to win the LTD honors.

In the Champions and Heroes category, which are rated at 88 and 85 OVR, respectively, Buffalo Bills RB James Cook, Atlanta Falcons DT Zach Harrison, and New York Giants WR Wan’Dale Robinson are featured.

Here’s the full Madden NFL 26 TOTW 2:

• Tucker Kraft, Green Bay Packers: 89 OVR

• Brian Branch, Detroit Lions: 89 OVR

• James Cook, Buffalo Bills: 88 OVR

• Wan’Dale Robinson, New York Giants: 88 OVR

• Zach Harrison, Atlanta Falcons: 88 OVR

• Rome Odunze, Chicago Bears: 85 OVR

• Mac Jones, San Francisco 49ers: 85 OVR

• Josh Sweat, Arizona Cardinals: 85 OVR

• Rhamondre Stevenson, New England Patriots: 83 OVR

• Dax Hill, Cincinnati Bengals: 83 OVR

• Hunter Renfrow, Carolina Panthers: 83 OVR

• Tavius Robinson, Baltimore Ravens: 83 OVR

LONDON: Among the fans of the British crime writer Agatha Christie, it’s no secret that the literary mother of such enduring fictional characters as Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot loved Iraq and, for some years after the Second World War, lived in a house in Baghdad.

According to recent reports originating from Turkiye’s Anadolu Agency, that house, in the city’s Karrada Maryam district on the west bank of the Tigris, is now a near-ruin, in danger of imminent collapse.

As the story goes, it isn’t only Christie’s association with the property that makes it a heritage gem worth saving for posterity.

Known as the Beit Melek Ali, legend has it that the house once belonged to Ali bin Hussein, the former King of Hejaz who sought sanctuary in Baghdad after being deposed in 1925.

But there’s a problem with this narrative, which is somewhat undermined by a mystery that Christie herself might have relished, and to which she left few clues behind.

It is clear from recently published photographs of the house in the city’s Karrada Maryam district, on the riverbank in the shadow of Al-Jumariyah bridge and close to the northerly edge of the Green Zone, that this abandoned building is indeed in an advanced state of disrepair. Most of its roof is missing and its river-facing balconies are sagging.

But did Christie ever really stay here and, if so, when, exactly?

The author first came to Baghdad in 1928, at the age of 38, in the wake of her much-publicised divorce from her first husband, Col. Archibald Christie, whom she had married in 1914.

She travelled from England in style, as far as Istanbul on board the luxurious Orient Express — a journey that inspired her 1934 novel, “Murder on the Orient Express” — and from there on to Baghdad, via another train to Damascus and from there across 880 km of desert by a specially equipped car, part of a fleet operated on the route by the Nairn Transport Company, which was run by two New Zealand brothers.

The 48-hour journey, as Christie recalled in her autobiography, was “fascinating and rather sinister,” broken by an overnight stay at a well-guarded fort in the isolated town of Rutbah in western Iraq, midway between Damascus and Baghdad.

Christie described her first sight of Baghdad: “In the distance, on the left, we saw the golden domes of Kadhimain, then on and over another bridge of boats, over the river Tigris, and so into Baghdad — along a street full of rickety buildings, with a beautiful mosque with turquoise domes standing, it seemed to me, in the middle of the street.”

On this occasion she stayed with one of the many expat British couples based in Baghdad. The capital had been seized from Ottoman forces in 1917 and, like the rest of the country, would remain under British control until Iraq was granted independence in 1932.

At that time, as Christie’s biographer Laura Thompson wrote, Baghdad “was a city where the British traveller could find racing, tennis, clubs and no doubt Marmite on toast; in the pre-war years it was not at all unusual to find people of Agatha’s class in such places.”

Christie embarked on the obligatory round of social calls, during which she met the famous archaeologist Sir Leonard Woolley, who in 1922 had begun excavating the ancient Sumerian royal city of Ur. Christie became friends with Woolley and his wife, Katherine, and was invited to the dig, 300 km southeast of Baghdad.

Christie returned to England, but came back to Baghdad, and to Ur, in 1930. On this trip she met her future husband, Woolley’s assistant Max Mallowan, and they were married in September that year.

From 1930 to 1939, and then again — after the Second World War — from 1949 to the late 1950s, Christie accompanied Mallowan on an estimated 15 or more archaeological digs in Iraq or Syria, frequently staying in Baghdad en route.

However, in her autobiography, begun in 1950 and completed in 1965, only once did Christie mention living in Baghdad.

“I have not yet mentioned our house in Baghdad,” she writes near the end of the book, which was published posthumously in 1977, the year after her death.

“We had an old Turkish house on the West bank of the Tigris. It was thought a very curious taste on our part to be so fond of it, and not to want one of the modern boxes, but our Turkish house was cool and delightful, with its courtyard and the palm-trees coming up to the balcony rail.”

This, possibly, was the house that now stands derelict on the Tigris. But there is evidence that after the war Christie and her husband moved into a far grander property in Baghdad.

An Agatha Christie fan site repeats the story that “Christie lived in the Beit Melek Ali with Max Mallowan for a time.” In 1949, it adds, the Iraqi-Palestinian author Jabra Ibrahim Jabra wrote of meeting the Mallowans there.

Robert Hamilton, an archaeologist who invited Jabra to meet the Mallowans, told him it was “the house of King Ali … an old Turkish house that goes back to the Ottoman period, and it is one of the most beautiful homes of old Baghdad.”

But even in its heyday, the house now decaying on the river’s edge in the Karradat Maryam neighborhood would not have fitted that description.

King Ali of the Hejaz had fled to Baghdad in 1925 because his brother Faisal had been installed as King of Iraq four years earlier. Ali died in Baghdad in 1935 and Christie, whose first trip to Baghdad was in 1928, seven years before the exiled king died, was certainly aware of the house where he lived.

She set two books in Iraq: Murder in Mesopotamia, inspired by her archaeological adventures and published in 1936, and the 1951 adventure They Came to Baghdad.

In this spy thriller a character is told to walk along the Tigris until she comes to the Beit Melek Ali. She finds “a big house built right out on to the river with a garden and balustrade. The path on the bank passed on the inside of what must be the Beit Melek Ali or the House of King Ali. She could not go along the bank any further and so turned inland.”

This description fits the only known photograph of the Beit Melek Ali, held in the archives of the US Library of Congress. Unlike the altogether less impressive house by Jumariyah bridge, this building — far grander, and clearly fit for a king — is right on the waterfront, with no path in front of it.

It seems improbable that in her autobiography Christie would have made no mention of the history of her Baghdad house had she in fact lived in the Beit Melek Ali — and, besides, there are other candidates for the title “Agatha Christie’s Baghdad house.”

Mallowan, her husband, was a member of an organization called the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, which in 1946 purchased a building in Baghdad. As a paper published in 2018 in the journal of the American Society of Overseas Research recalled, Mallowan was appointed as the school’s first director “and immediately took up residence, along with a secretary, six students and Agatha Christie.”

This, then, was Christie’s house in Baghdad during the 1940s and 1950s. There is an oblique reference to it in her obituary, published in 1976 in the British School of Archaeology’s journal Iraq, which recorded only that “in the old schoolhouse overlooking the river Tigris in Baghdad where she wrote ‘They Came to Baghdad,’ she would read and write in peace.”

But where it was, and whether it is still standing today — questions that can also be asked of the true Beit Melek Ali — remains a mystery.

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READ MORE:

• Agatha Christie and her Middle Eastern mysteries

• Agatha Christie had little-known role in ancient Nimrud

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The likelihood that the now-decrepit old house by Al-Jumariyah bridge was the headquarters of the British School of Archaeology in Iraq, and the home for several years of Christie and Mallowan, is further undermined by two photographs, both of which purport to show Christie on the balcony of the BSAI, and neither of which appears to have been taken at the claimed Christie house in the Karrada Maryam district.

In terms of pinpointing the exact location of the BSAI house she shared with Mallowan in Baghdad, inquiries with both the organization (which in 2007 was renamed The British Institute for the Study of Iraq) and the Christie Archive Trust have so far drawn a blank.

Meanwhile, an email this week from an archaeologist who has written about the history of the BSAI has muddied the waters further.

“As far as I know, there was nothing particularly special about the (BSAI) house,” Mary Shepperson, who specializes in the urban archaeology of the Middle East at the University of Liverpool’s School of Architecture, told Arab News.

“It was chosen because it was cheap -– archaeology always operates on a shoestring. It was notoriously basic. I think it’s still standing today but in very poor shape.”

And then she added: “I don’t think either of the two photos you sent are the old BSAI house.”

Attached to the email was a photograph of yet another building in Baghdad. “This,” Shepperson declared, “is a picture of the river side of the house.”

As Christie wrote in her very first detective novel, “The Mysterious Affair at Styles,” published in 1920, “everything must be taken into account. If the fact will not fit the theory — let the theory go.”

Ultimately, though, Christie, who died in 1976 at the age of 85, would probably have found the fascination with her living arrangements in Baghdad tedious.

“People,” as she once said, “should be interested in books, not their authors.”