Book Review: Cards on the Table

Cards on the Table

At an unusual party thrown by Mr. Shaitana, an absorbing post-dinner game of bridge among Hercule Poirot, celebrated mystery author Mrs. Ariadne Oliver (her first appearance in a Poirot novel), Superintendent Battle, Colonel Race from the Secret Service, and four of Mr. Shaitana's acquaintances takes a dangerous turn when he is found murdered with a stiletto, one of the curios found in the room. Convinced that the killer is very much in their midst, Poirot, Mrs. Oliver, Supt. Battle and Col. Race pool their ideas to unravel the puzzle.

Cards on the Table is as adroitly constructed as a closed-door mystery can be, at the same time offering a slew of unpredictable twists and turns given its limited scope to play around. Christie also explores the psychology of the four guests through the shrewd eyes of Poirot, who alas has nothing to deduce about them except for the four crumpled pieces of paper containing the bridge scores which were maintained by each one of them during the four games they played.

As Christie says in the Foreword to the book: "There are only four starters and any one of them, given the right circumstances, might have committed the crime. That knocks out forcibly the element of surprise. Nevertheless there should be, I think, an equal interest attached to four persons, each of whom has committed murder and is capable of committing more murders... The deduction must, therefore, be entirely psychological,..." The fact that she managed to sustain the reader's interest till the end despite this 'shortcoming' is crime writing at its brilliant, accomplished form.