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Cards on the Table

An enjoyable evening of bridge turns into a murder investigation when the flamboyant host Mr Shaitana is found dead. Can the four invited investigators - Hercule Poirot, Superintendent Battle, Colonel Race and Ariadne Oliver - discover which of the other four guests is the killer? All four had the opportunity - and all four have something to hide. After all, their host seemed certain that each of them had already got away with murder.
Year: 1936
Detective: Hercule Poirot
Location: London

Cast of characters

Hercule Poirot, Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, Superintendent Battle, Colonel Johnny Race. Also: Mrs. Benson, Mrs. Craddock, Charles Craddock, Rhoda Dawes, Major John Despard, Gerald Hemmingway, Mrs. Lorrimer, Mrs. Luxmore, Anne Meredith, Sergeant O'Connor, Dr. Roberts, Mr. Shaitana

Publishing history

Publishing: First published by William Collins Sons & Co. in 1936 in London, and by Dodd, Mead & Co. in New York in 1937. Stage: Adapted for the stage by Leslie Darbon, the play opened at the Vaudeville Theatre, London, on December 9, 1981. The stage version eliminates Hercule Poirot and Colonel Race from the action.

Notes and reviews

Considered one of the best of Christie's closed-door murders. This novel also marks the first appearance of Mrs. Ariadne Oliver in a novel. Poirot revealed the plot for this novel in Chapter 3 of 'The ABC Murders', when he describes his idea of the ideal crime for Hastings; "A crime with no complications. A crime of quiet domestic life."

Murder methods:

One Stabbing.
One Poisoning.
One Drowning.

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