Christie Agatha. Cards on the Table

A flamboyant party host is murdered in full view of a roomful of bridge players… Mr Shaitana was famous as a flamboyant party host. Nevertheless, he was a man of whom everybody was a little afraid. So, when he boasted to Poirot that he considered murder an art form, the detective had some reservations about accepting a party invitation to view Shaitana’s private collection. Indeed, what began as an absorbing evening of bridge was to turn into a more dangerous game altogether…

Four murders, four detectives, Agatha Christie present a clever puzzle at a bridge game in which any player could have murdered their loathsome host. The foreword even mentions that this was one of Poirot’s favourite cases, while Hastings found it rather dull. This book was the debut of Agatha Christie’s literary alter ego and parody of herself, Ariadne Oliver, a popular detective writer through whom Christie often voiced her opinions of the industry. One of the characters of the story even recognises Mrs Oliver as writing the novel The Body in the Library, a title Christie then adopted for her own Marple novel in 1942.