Agatha Christie Playing Cards

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That is until Shaitana is found dead in his chair from a stabbed through the heart with his own stiletto at the end of the evening. I don't want to ruin anything, so I'll just say this one is another great cozy mystery that any fan of Agatha Christie will probably love. This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater. 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.

Colonel Race meets Hercule Poirot! Not only that but Ariadne Oliver arrives and crunches on a few apples, foreshadowing what happens in Hallowe'en Party. Another Christe regular, Superintendent Battle, also shows up to make this a pretty large party of recurring characters. After many twists and turns, red herrings and blind alleys the denouement is a lot more than expected. But Major Despard sees through his act, and when another guest describes the Inspector as “rather stupid”, comments: In this classic mystery, Poirot is invited to a dinner party with a difference by the slightly unsavoury Mr Shaitana; a rich man addicted to parties and gossip. He wants Poirot to come to dinner to meet his exhibits - murderers who he claims have "got away with it." Although Poirot finds his hobby dangerous he agrees, leading to a dinner party with four sleuths (Poirot himself, Colonel Race, who works for the Secret Service, Superintendent Battle from Scotland Yard and our old friend the detective writer Ariadne Oliver) and four possible murderers (the cheerful Dr Roberts, the explorer Major Despard, serious bridge player Mrs Lorrimer and the young and nervous Miss Anne Meredith). After dinner the guests play bridge, while Mr Shaitana dozes by the fire and, during the evening, he is murdered. I'm done! It feels like I am finishing books up so slowly lately - June wasn't a strong reading month.

A few odd comments (taunts?) are made by the host to some of the guests at dinner, but as they retire to play bridge all seems well. I have been quite fond of the Hercule Poirot experience undertaking for the past few months. Each story is not only exciting, but also full of wonderful mystery writing that is no longer the norm in today’s publications. Agatha Christie knows what she’s doing and keeps the reader entertained with many reveals they could not have seen coming. Brilliant work and it keeps me wanting to read more.

This could almost be Poirot thinking. And so, we see the author’s thoughts made concrete, for our entertainment. 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: 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. 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: Follow the Queen of Crime’s trail through novels including Murder On The Orient Express, And Then There Were None, Sparkling Cyanide and many more! Do you have what it takes to detect all 90 clues? Includes a fold-out poster detailing each clue and fun facts about Agatha and her works.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).