Reading Cards On The Table

What could possibly be better than a Poirot mystery? How about a Poirot mystery in which he teams up with 3 other beloved Agatha Christie characters?

The Story In Cards On The Table

At a hospital fundraiser, Poirot meets a man known only as Mr. Shaitana. Shaitana, who dresses in a manner clearly intended to evoke images of Méphistophélès, taunts Poirot with claims of his own impressive collection–but his “collection” is of people who’ve gotten away with murder. Shaitana invites Poirot to dinner in his home to study them. He also challenges Poirot to work out which of the “collection” are actual murders and which one is innocent.

At the dinner Poirot is joined by secret service agent Colonel Race, Scotland Yard’s Superintendent Battle, and celebrated crime novelist Ariadne Oliver. The “collection” of murderers is populated by physician Doctor Roberts, wealthy woman Mrs. Lorrimer, ladies companion Anne Meredith and army Major Despard.

After dinner, the sleuths and the alleged murders retire to separate rooms to play bridge. After the party ends, Shaitana, who spent the evening in the murderers’ room, is discovered dead in his chair, fatally stabbed with one of his own small knives. Poirot and the other investigators team up to uncover the murderer and to learn the truth about the alleged previous murders.

My Thoughts On Cards On The Table

I had a hoot with this novel. Once again, Christie surprised me by placing Poirot in a story that wasn’t your typical murder in an English estate somewhere in the countryside. I love that Poirot is working alongside–but not competing with–the other investigators. This is still Poirot’s story and he is ultimately the one to tie all the pieces together, but having the others carry a share of the load helped break some of the monotony a full-length mystery novel just necessarily has.

Cards On The Table was also laugh-out-loud funny in spots. I’d always heard that Christie had a subtle but sharp sense of humor and I certainly saw it at work in this novel. From the book’s forward, in which she warns the readers against the practice of identifying the least likely suspect and pronouncing them the murderer, to Ariadne Oliver’s parody of Christie’s public image, to Poirot’s stopping mid-conversation to mentally compare Shaitana’s moustache to his own, the novel excels at tiny moments of humor but never devolves to the point of minimizing the horror of a brutal murder.

I’d seen Zoë Wanamaker’s depiction of Ariadne Oliver in an episode of Agatha Christie’s Poirot prior to reading Cards On The Table but Colonel Race and Superintendent Battle were new to me. I’ll be keen to meet them all again in future.

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