Written by Agatha Christie
SUMMARY:
First published in 1936, this 249-page William Morrow/HarperCollins paperback reprint was released in 2011. In London, a chance meeting prompts Hercule Poirot’s bigger-than-life social acquaintance, a Mr. Shaitana, to gleefully invite the Belgian detective to his lavish flat for dinner, drinks, and possibly murder.
At this peculiar supper party, the flamboyant Shaitana’s guest list includes Colonel Race of the British Secret Service, Scotland Yard’s Superintendent Battle, and mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver. Evidently attending for their own private reasons, Shaitana’s other quartet of guests consists of: pompous physician Dr. Geoffrey Roberts; sharp-witted widow Mrs. Lorrimer; meekly young companion Anne Meredith; and dashing explorer Major Despard. Before the night is over, as each quartet of guests play bridge in adjacent rooms, their Mephistophelian-like host is discovered stabbed to death.
Loosely working as a team, Christie’s detectives deploy their own special methods to ferret out the enigmatic culprit, who may not settle for one victim. The question remains: which of the fellow guests did their late host evidently bait like a hungry tiger?
Notes: Poirot & Race also team up in Death on the Nile. In addition to early appearances working with Parker Pyne, Ariadne Oliver appears in several subsequent Poirot mysteries: Mrs. McGinty’s Dead; Dead Man’s Folly; Third Girl; Hallowe’en Party; and Elephants Can Remember. Along with Ariadne Oliver, Despard and his wife later resurface in The Pale Horse.
REVIEW:
Despite Christie’s propensity for crossovers recycling her supporting cast, Cards on the Table is the sole team-up co-starring four of Christie’s signature headliners. The absence of Miss Marple, Harley Quin, and/or Tommy & Tuppence Beresford is regrettable; even so, Christie’s fans won’t be disappointed.
At a minimum (presumably, it was Christie’s intent), Cards on the Table may well spark renewed interest in Ariadne Oliver, or, for that matter, exploring Battle and Race’s own solo cases – many of which date back to the 1920’s. That aside, amongst Christie’s vast repertoire, Cards on the Table is a delight to read!
While the bridge-related jargon might bewilder non-players (of which this reviewer readily confesses to), this factor doesn’t impact the mystery’s entertainment value much. Instead, one should think of such references as an analogy to the investigation: how one plays his/her cards on or off the table reveals plenty about the player’s mentality. Not only is the primary crime audaciously intriguing, readers tag along to probe at least four other crimes hidden deep in the past.
In that sense, the concept predates Christie’s grim And Then There Were None, in terms of bringing belated justice home to some unrepentant sinners. Make no mistake, though: Cards on the Table is a breezy caper, as compared to the dark-and-stormy-night that And Then There Were None is. Shaitana’s devilish charisma, for instance, is more attuned to a wacky Batman villain, as far as this plot’s undercurrent of macabre humor goes.
One also should ponder the judgment of Shaitana’s uneasy guests, as none of them actually like their weird host. Short of scoring a free meal, why would these eight invitees come to his home, let alone even associate with this creep? Suffice to say, it’s one baffling puzzle Christie may well leave unsolved.
There’s really no ingenious ‘Ah-ha!’ to be found in Cards on the Table. In other words, Christie just wants fans to have some fun, much like how her foreword notes Poirot has a good time tackling this case. As a casual read, this Poirot mystery delivers the necessary goods (for instance, there’s few racist overtones, as compared to some of Christie’s notorious works).
David Suchet’s 2005 TV film version casts a wickedly perfect Shaitana in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’s Alexander Siddig. Otherwise, Suchet’s loose adaptation is a head-shaking misfire. An excess of glossy style is substituted in for reliable substance, as sensationalistic changes are made to sex up Christie’s plot. This reviewer instead recommends Neil Simon’s playfully outlandish Murder By Death. Despite its risqué humor, this all-star 1976 mystery-comedy spoof (including James Coco as its Poirot stand-in) pushes the detective dinner party-and-a-murder concept to the limit.
Note: Another Poirot curiosity is 1927’s The Big Four, as Captain Hastings rejoins his best friend for a globe-trotting, comic strip action-adventure melding Sherlock Holmes with James Bond. Pre-dating Ian Fleming’s style, Christie’s ludicrous plot scores few reality points, let alone expresses sensitivity towards racial caricatures. Exploring Christie’s equivalents to Fu Manchu, Professor Moriarty, and even SMERSH/SPECTRE decades before the James Bond movie franchise, however, offers some fun in her one experiment with Poirot pulp fiction.
ADDITIONAL FEATURES:
Christie includes a brief foreword and a table of contents. For visual aid purposes, the four suspects’ tabulated bridge scores appear on pages 44-45. The first page is the author bio. There’s multiple ads listing the publisher’s available Christie titles.
BRIAN’S ODD MOON RATING: 7½ Stars
