Agatha Christie Playing Cards

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This adaptation of another Agatha Christie Poirot novel has all the right elements that we have come to expect from this series: gorgeous sets, great guest stars, and of course the definitive Poirot, David Suchet, as always impeccable. But oh no no no no no! The producers have totally altered the storyline, adding so many jarring and gratuitous elements, that it's ridiculous.

Despite the genuine clues, Agatha Christie deftly leads us along false trails and feeds us many red herrings. There are bodies galore, with several murders in the past as well as the present one – plus a future murder, a future suicide and a future accidental death. There is romance – and deceit. A hired actor is employed by one of the detectives, to great effect. And, astoundingly, the entire plot turns on the game of bridge, and the bids made, alongside the guests’ memories of the room they were in. Poirot’s bases his theory upon the murderer’s recollection of the bridge game. The murderer could remember very little about it, except for the grand slam that they made, yet they could remember a lot about the layout of the room they played in. This was significant, and was in direct contrast to what the other suspects recalled. The solution to the murder is an analytical one – quite brilliant and a complete surprise. Not a household name, Cards on the Table, yet it has things to recommend it. First, it involves a—first time—introduction by “Agatha Christie,” speaking for Hercule Poirot as a “real person,” whose case we will read as one of his favorites. The core of this case is the murder of a mysterious “foreign” (always exoticizing the other, this Christie) snuff box collector, a Mr. Shaitana who organizes a bridge party to exhibit yet another “collection”—of murderers—(four people he knows who have committed murderers and gotten away with it. Shaitana also invites Scotland Yard Superintendent Battle, Colonel Race of the Secret Service, Ariadne Oliver, a famed mystery novelist, and Hercule Poirot, a semi-retired Belgian detective. Is this because of his extravagant sense of style? Or his supreme confidence? Or is there perhaps a touch of envy in those who know him?: Interestingly, “Shaitana” is a Hindi word, meaning “Devil”. Mr. Shaitana does seem to be universally disliked:

Hercule Poirot : The First Cases

Like Poirot, I had a hunch whodunit this time around and read through to see if I was right, but more to see the methods employed in this unique setup for a case. Agatha Christie has helped me get through this unique year, and I still have a few more of her cases to get through before the year is out. Mentally, I’m ready for the calendar to read 2021. I think then I’ll be able to exercise my gray cells with literary tomes that I have not attempted in months. Until then, Dame Christie is there, and Poirot is never wrong. The fictional detective Poirot's friend, the fictional author of mysteries Ariadne Oliver, makes an appearance in this book and as always, she's an entertaining addition. Her idiosyncrasies, along with Poirot's, balance nicely against the two more staid "sleuths" making up the crime-solving foursome in the book (four other characters are the potential murderers). Poirot and Colonel Race see that the flamboyant Mr. Shaitana has been silenced for ever: stabbed in the chest, with a weapon from his own collection. Mr. Shaitana had tempted Providence, and he had lost. Shaitana was a man who prided himself on his Mephistophelian attitude to life. He was a man of great vanity. He was also a stupid man – that’s why he is dead.”

The four detectives agree to take one each of the other four guests, to investigate as the possible murderer one-to-one. Since each happens to suspect a different guest, the allocation of guests is straightforward. As Ariadne Oliver herself remarks:

Ah, there we have it. Each invited guest must be wondering why they have been given such preferential treatment, and perhaps too, they also might wonder what Mr Shaitana knows about them. All the detectives spark off each other, and we get in-jokes which refer to other Poirot novels (which I will not quote, for fear of “spoilers”). We get a good impression of Mrs. Ariadne Oliver’s detective novels, with her hero “Sven”. She has authored thirty-two detective novels, and the part where she describes the difficulties of her craft is very droll. Take this exchange: Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, came out in 1920. During her first marriage, Agatha published six novels, a collection of short stories, and a number of short stories in magazines. Spot the least likely person to have committed the crime and in nine times out of ten your task is finished … The player with the You’re The Murderer!! secret card wins the game if the draw pile is exhausted and The Murderer Escapes! card is revealed, or if all of the

So this evening we watched two of the movies. First up was this very entertaining adaptation of Christie's novel of psychology. Ariadne Oliver, an author surrogate character for Mrs. Christie herself, makes her first filmed and literary appearance here. Zoë Wanamaker is a wonderful choice to play Mrs. Oliver, being husky-voiced and of a distinctive and memorable appearance. It's one of the pleasures of the films that the actors cast in Christie's roles are uniformly excellent craftspeople, and Wanamaker is no exception. He existed richly and beautifully in a super flat in Park Lane … and gave wonderful parties – large parties, small parties, macabre parties, respectable parties and definitely “queer” parties.” Games night just became a whole lot more mysterious with the introduction of these Agatha Christie playing cards. When slimy collector, Mr. Shaitana, invites Poirot to his home to see a collection of murderers, our little Belgian detective can't resist. Colonel Race (secret service), Ariadne Oliver (mystery writer), and Superintendent Battle (police detective) are also all there as unwitting observers of Shaitana's impressive assembly.

Agatha Christie's Death on the Cards

To help his own part of the investigation, Poirot decides to take the score sheets which each of the guests made in their bridge game, in case it should reveal something untoward. His approach, as he says, is always from the psychological angle; looking for the motive and psychology behind the murder, to ascertain the truth. Yet he knows others might think some of the details he focuses on to be foolish: Here though she plays an almost meta character, with whom Christie voices her own frustrations with writing mysteries. She claims not to care about the “facts” involving real investigations, but gets caught up in the details so much that she writes herself into corners and then has to do research to found out which type of beans would be in season so as not to be inconsistent with her books. She has gained popularity writing a foreign detective (who is Finnish rather than Christie’s Belgian sleuth) and she can’t stand him but continues writing his books because he’s popular. Given Christie’s well-known dislike of Poirot this comes off as absolutely hilarious. The four murderers and the four sleuths – Scotland Yard. Secret Service. Private. Fiction. A clever idea.” To solve the murder of Shaitana, Poirot & Co. will have to investigate the history of these four guests who may have gotten away with murder in the past.

The fact that this is a quote in the book absolutely delights me. That it’s played with multiple times after the quote makes it even better. The Publisher Says: It was the match-up of the century: four sleuths--Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard; Mrs. Ariadne Oliver, famed writer of detective stories; Col. Race of His Majesty's Secret Service; and the incomparable Hercule Poirot - invited to play bridge with four specially invited guests, each of whom had gotten away with murder! But before the first rubber was completed, the host was dead.Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery - the approximate delivery time is usually between 1-2 business days. Delivery with Standard Australia Post usually happens within 2-10 business days from time of dispatch. Please be aware that the delivery time frame may vary according to the area of delivery and due to various reasons, the delivery may take longer than the original estimated timeframe. Thanks to Hercule Poirot, it ended well - the Belgian detective dominates the story from start to finish. That may sound like it's something needless to say, but Agatha Christie did tend to have some Poirot books where the beloved detective didn't even show up until the second half or toward the end. In this case we open up with him at a party and end with him entertaining survivors.