Helpful Score: 1
You can always count on Dame Agatha for a great mystery that you won't be able to figure out before she reveals all!! This one is no different. If you like Christie mysteries, you'll enjoy this one, too!
Donna E. (impossible) reviewed Cards on the Table (Hercule Poirot, Bk 13) on + 3352 more book reviews
Four noted criminologists, including Poirot, are invited to play bridge and find out they are matched with four others who have all gotten away with murder. The host, Mr. Shaitana, thinks it is marvelous entertainment, then he winds up dead.
Good one!
Nicely done, yet again.
I really enjoyed this book. I love Poirot.
I think this is one of the best books I've read by Agatha Christie.
Christie mentioned the premise of this novel in a couple of her earlier works, setting up her public for it, I assume. It certainly does not disappoint. Even on rereading, when I could remember most of the how of the murder, I was taken in by a really well laid out diversion. There is a great deal of humor in this novel as well, making it delightful to revisit as some mysteries are not. It features mystery writer Ariadne Oliver's first appearance in a full-length work, and the reappearance of Superintendent Battle and Colonel Race, and all get to contribute their part to Poirot's ultimate solution. The bridge play (which is discussed quite a bit) is accessible to the novice and should not put you off. The characters are a shade underdeveloped compared to some of Christie's other mysteries, but all in all Cards on the Table is in the upper half of her cannon.
It was the match-up of the century, four sleuths-Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard, Mrs Ariadne Oliver, famed writer of detective stories, Colonel Race. of His Majesty's Secret Service, and the incomparable Hercule Poirot---invited to play bridge with four specially invited guests, each of whom had gotten away with murder! But for the host, the mysterious Mr Shaitana, it was to be a clever entertainment. But before the first rubber was completed, the host himself was dead...
It was the match-up of the century. Four sleuths-Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard. Mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, Colonel Race of his
majesty's secret service and the incomparable Hercule Poirot-invited to play bridge with four specifically invited rivals, each of whom had once gotten away with murder. For the host it was irresistible entertainment-until his own murder became paart of the game. Now it up to Poirot to play his hand and decipher one of Agatha Christie's most ingeniously plotted puzzles. Back of Book.
majesty's secret service and the incomparable Hercule Poirot-invited to play bridge with four specifically invited rivals, each of whom had once gotten away with murder. For the host it was irresistible entertainment-until his own murder became paart of the game. Now it up to Poirot to play his hand and decipher one of Agatha Christie's most ingeniously plotted puzzles. Back of Book.
