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Title: Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie ISBN: 0-425-10567-9 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 10 April, 2001 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.7 (20 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: ONE OF MY FAVORITE AGATHA CHRISTIE BOOKS
Comment: I was extremely pleased with Cards on the Table. The premise for the book was duly intriguing, with perhaps one of the more creative plot ideas to boot. The sleuths were intelligent and delightful, the possible murderers all sufficiently suspicious, and the victim a person who played his role to the nines.
Dame Agatha made a point to say during the prologue that because you knew right away who the four possible murderers were, the element of surprise during the unmasking would be slightly less than if suspicion were cast on a whole room-full of people. True, perhaps, although not the common thread in ALL mediums.
Cards on the Table, despite its aforesaid lack of surprise, does manage a neat, nice, maybe even SHOCKING unmasking of the murderer. It has no qualms about turning you around, giving you the classic Christie twist that makes you suspect each of the four in turn--and all in one chapter! You then realize that the true murderer is none other than the per! son you least suspected most--and that is perhaps one reason why Poirot was known to say it was his FAVORITE case, after all.
Rating: 5
Summary: Four Detectives, Four Potential Murderers, and One Corpse
Comment: Mr. Shaitana, a wealthy collector of objets d'art, has an unusual idea for a dinner party after a chance meeting with Hercule Poirot in an art gallery. He invites to dinner four detectives plus four people he suspects may have gotten away with murder.
Along with Poirot are two detectives we have met in earlier Christie works: Colonel Race, the trouble-shooter from the Foreign Office, and Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard. Introduced in this book is Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, a best-selling mystery writer, who has been compared to Christie herself. Like Mrs. Christie, Mrs. Oliver eats large quantities of apples while writing and Mrs. Oliver's books are about a quirky Finn who is not unlike Mrs. Christie's quirky Belgian. Mrs. Oliver will return in six additional novels.
The other four guests that evening are: Dr. Roberts, a successful physician; Mrs. Lorrimer, an affluent widow who loves to play bridge; Major Despard, an African and South American explorer and guide; and Miss Anne Meredith, a young lady Shaitana met in Switzerland.
After dinner, a game of bridge is arranged. Shaitana directs the four detectives to one room while the other four guests play in a separate room. The host says he does not like the game so sits and dozes by the fire in the room where the four possible murderers are playing. When the guests prepare to leave later, it is discovered that Shaitana has been fatally stabbed at some point in the evening.
All four detectives tackle this case in their own way. Bridge players will delight in the way Poirot handles the case. He concentrates on the game itself, the hands that were dealt, and the method of scoring. If you pay attention to the game, you just might guess the murderer.
This is one of Christie's classic surprise endings and, in my opinion, one of her best works.
Rating: 4
Summary: Most Delightful Set-Up (Except for the Victim, I Suppose)
Comment: Agatha Christie creates a delightful set-up for mystery fans. It is a dinner party with eight guests and a host. Four people who may have gotten away with murder in one room playing bridge and four detectives playing bridge in the another room, including the always clever Hercule Poirot and the wacky mystery writer Mrs. Ariadne Oliver. By evening's end the host and organizer of this odd dinner party is dead and only one of the four possible murderers could have done it. The author and the four detectives, and thus the reader, have a lot of fun with this conceit. The book spills its tale quickly and makes for a rapid, wonderful read, even if the denoument becomes a little tangled and far-fetched. It is a crazy ride worth taking for a few hours.
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Title: The Mystery of the Blue Train by Agatha Christie ISBN: 0425130266 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 12 June, 2000 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The A.B.C. Murders by Agatha Christie ISBN: 042513024X Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: June, 1993 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Murder on the Links by Agatha Christie ISBN: 0425067947 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: June, 1996 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: The Big Four by Agatha Christie ISBN: 0425098826 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 12 June, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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Title: Appointment With Death: A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Agatha Christie, Jayne Pliner ISBN: 0425108589 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: 08 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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