Cards on the Table is a more explicit study in psychology that most of her books. All the characters feel like real people with strengths, weaknesses and foibles. The locked room mystery – the murderer can only be one among four! – further raises the stakes.
Title: Cards on the Table
Author: Agatha Christie
Genre: Classics, Mystery, Thriller
Publication Date: November 2, 1936
Review Date: June 18, 2018 // October 12, 2026
Number of Pages: 324 (paperback)
My Rating: 4.0/5
Buy here:
Book Blurb of Cards on the Table:
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.
Book Review of Cards on the Table:
Another of the Christie classics. I’ve reviewed so many of her books, by now you know I’m an absolute fan.
This is a pretty well written book, too. Many twists and turns and loops. I love that this was a more explicit study in psychology that most of her books. They all have a base in psychology, sure, but it was used very well here.
The characters were very well described, but I think that’s a classic Christie trait. They’re all real people with strengths, weaknesses and foibles. Here it was magnified as the murderer could only be one of four people and hence it was all the more difficult to figure it out. Locked room mysteries tend to evoke such feelings! They all seemed to have their own reasons to hide, deflect or shield. There was a twist and then there were more twists!
I also noticed many instances of self deprecating humor and I just feel like Agatha Christie was much more amazing than we know of or see from her work. I like to think she was just as irreverent as Mrs Oliver, and I may be romanticizing here, but I’d also like to believe that it may give us a playful insight into her thought process while writing too. Just as Mrs Oliver didn’t really like her Finn, we know that Christie didn’t really like Poirot much either. Which made me feel maybe the other insights were at least slightly true too. And that made me sorta happy.
Overall, an amazing book with multiple twists and turns that keep you guessing till the very end.
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