Cards on the Table
Hard Cover. London: The Crime Club by Collins, 1936. First Edition. Very Good.
First edition, first printing. Publisher's red cloth, lettered in black. Very good, with light fading to spine, mild soiling to cloth, light offsetting to endpapers, three ownership signatures to front free endpaper, and light spotting to pages (primarily edges). Overall, a very nice copy of a hard-to-find Christie title. Cards on the Table is a murder-mystery featuring Christie's fictional Belgian detective Hercule Poirot in one of his most notable literary appearances. The plot tells of a bridge game hosted by collector Mr. Shaitana, who has invited eight guests to play in two separate games. The first game involves three detective figures, whom Christie had previously introduced in earlier novels, along with Poirot, while the second game involves four new characters, each of whom had previously committed a murder. When Shaitana is found dead, stabbed with a dagger from his own collection, Poirot teams up with the other sleuths in what he describes as "one of the most interesting cases I have ever come across." Cards on the Table represents Christie at her best; although she warns her reader in a brief foreword that this is not the typical detective story, she explains that "the deduction must, therefore, be entirely psychological" which she argues is "none the less interesting…because when all is said and done it is the mind of the murderer that is of supreme interest."
Item #AC088
Price: $850.00
