“My dear M. Poirot!”

I’ve been doing this for so long that I assume by now when I read a Christie again I assume I’ve already reviewed it. As it is, they’re still not all done, so time to tackle one of her most ingenious.

Hercule Poirot bumps into an old acquaintance Mr Shaitana at an exhibition and finds himself invited to a dinner party. Mr Shaitana promises that he can use the dinner to show off a new collection of his – a collection of killers. Poirot attends the dinner to find himself with seven other guests. Among the supposed murderers are young and quiet Miss Meredith, successful physician Dr Roberts, widower and expert bridge player Mrs Lorrimer, and sport hunter Major Despard. There are also three other figures Poirot knows a little better – Colonel Race, Superintendent Battle and Ariadne Oliver. Four killers, four detectives and one host. What could possibly go wrong?

After dinner, everyone retires to play bridge. The detectives play in one room, while Mr Shaitana stays in the room with his other guests. Once the evening is over, however, a shocking discovery is made. Shaitana is dead, stabbed through the heart, and it could only have been one of the people in the room.

The compliant that is often lobbied at Christie and at murder mysteries in general is that it’s “always the one you least suspect”. Knowing this to be the case, Christie set about trying to subvert the trope. Here, there are only four suspects, each of them is suspected of having killed before, and each of them has a motive and opportunity to do away with Mr Shaitana. Now we have to solve it using just our wits and the clues at hand.

It’s also a particularly notable novel due to the crossovers of characters. All of the characters have worked with Poirot either before or after this tale, but they’ve also had stories without him. Oliver turns up in Parker Pyne Investigates, Race solves the crime himself in Sparkling Cyanide, and this is the only time Battle and Poirot meet, with him turning up separately in four other novels. It’s fun to see Christie’s detectives working together and using their different methodologies and backgrounds to find the answers. While Poirot never met Marple, it is books like this that confirm all of the characters are part of the same universe.

The concept is great, and it doesn’t disappoint, with you flipping around between the four as we get to see their points of view, as well as those of the detectives. Perhaps if you know a thing or two about the game of bridge, you might be able to solve it a little sooner than most, but only if you know what to look for.

A fun and really quite dastardly problem.

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