Cards on the Table

First Published: 1936

Setting: London

Starring: Hercule Poirot, Mrs. Oliver, Battle, Colonel Race (the Sleuths)

Important Other People: Mr. Shaitana. Dr. Roberts, Mrs. Lorrimer, Major Despard, Anne Meredith (The "Murderers")

The plot for Cards on the Table was laid out by Poirot in The ABC Murders. It truly is a crime that Poirot has ordered to test himself. The important aspect is that there are only 4 suspects, and there is no way to figure out who did it except by Poirot using his little grey cells. It is the supreme psychological crime.

We are introduced to Mrs Oliver- the epitome of Agatha herself. One of Mrs. Oliver's books, The Body in the Library, is mentioned by one of the characters, a book that was eventually written by Christie herself. I like Mrs. Oliver a lot and I always enjoy reading about her, and it's mainly because Christie is clearly parodying herself. She describes the clothes Mrs. Oliver wears, her crazy hairstyles and hats, and mocks herself on her "women's intuition" that she uses to "solve" the crimes she comes into contact with. She guesses everyone in turn, which we see as Christie mocking herself for doing the same thing.

One thing that is interesting- one of the characters says that people tend to stick to arsenic for murders, yet Agatha had not written of any murders committed with arsenic up to this point in her writing career (in her novels).

Hercule Poirot has a thoroughly bourgeois attitude towards murder. He doesn't deal with the lower classes and their problems and murders. The one case that sticks out to me as having a lower-class feel is Mrs. McGinty's Dead, being that she's a charwoman, but the other characters involved are upper-class. Murder has become more common nowadays, making it difficult to find a parallel from the early to mid 20th century.

One of my biggest problems with the book is the importance Poirot places on the bridge scores kept by the suspects. Mainly because I don't know how to play bridge, I don't know the rules or terms, and I basically don't understand any part of what's going on with bridge. It's difficult to truly appreciate the importance of the scores, or to even understand what Poirot deduces based off of them, if you don't understand bridge. I feel like more people in 1936 played bridge and understood it. I always feel like it's something I need to learn just to understand this book better. We'll see if that happens...

Interesting facts: Japp is mentioned. This is a crime to order for Poirot's little grey cells. We see Rhoda and Despard many books later in The Pale Horse. Poirot reveals the true solution to the Orient Express to another character, which could ruin the book if you had never read it before.

Favorite? Of Poirot, YES. Of Agatha, I think it's up there because she always wanted to write it for Poirot to solve. For me, after I've read it a few times, I've liked it better. I hated it the first time I read it because I thought it was so unexciting and the bridge part made no sense to me.

Death by: Stabbing, Veronal/evipan, drowning

Body Count: 3; Cumulative: 46

The Count: Poirot-13, Miss. Marple-1, Tommy and Tuppence-1, Hastings-6, Japp-6, Colonel Race-2, Superintendent Battle-3, George-1, Goby-1, No Recurring Character- 2, Mrs. Oliver-1

Agatha's Life Lessons: A murderer can be an artist, but he's still a murderer. Man is an unoriginal animal. What can't be cured must be endured. There's nothing like death for bringing out the meanness of human nature. One ought to live frightfully dangerously- if one gets the chance. Life, on the whole, is terribly tame. Men don't do purely disinterested kindnesses. The moment a man's a bad lot, all the girls stick up for him. Things are just the same whether you talk about them or not. Life is a difficult business- it needs infinite courage and a lot of endurance. Men always do take fancies to unsuitable women. Lying is not always a sign of guilt. No one can always be right (not even Poirot!)

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