Cards on the Table (Hercule Poirot, #15)

by Agatha Christie

Sunday, May 1, 2011

I enjoyed the Poirot I read recently and picked up another from the selection in the local library. This is classic Christie. She creates a field of suspects for a murder that is only four people wide, and then proceeds to show how they all have a motive, they all have opportunity etc. It’s all quite neat. In a way it’s very formulaic but that’s not a problem. It’s very entertaining having each suspect built up as the murderer and then played down again; and then there are four separate mysteries investigated as each suspect’s background is looked into. The ending piles layers of misdirection on top of each other - honestly, I already can’t remember who actually did it. It doesn’t really matter, it’s just fun to read.