It is impossible not to give oneself away—unless one never opens one’s mouth! Speech is the deadliest of revealers”—Poirot

A pesar de haber leido la novela anteriormente, no recordaba casi nada de ella, y eso no es habitual, suelo recordar bastantes detalles y a pesar de ello, las disfruto igual, pero en esta ocasión estaba totalmente despistada con lo que había ocurrido en realidad. This film, substantially altered from an excellent novel, finds a different and equal excellence. The spirit of the story is intact, and is well served by the changes made for film. And as always, the role of Poirot is complete and entire in David Suchet's hands. And mincing feet. And waxed mustache. The story, either medium, is delicious and savory and a treat not to be denied oneself. Well, how have I missed this one. I don't remember the book or the David Suchet TV version, and yet this was or should I say is, one of my all time favourite Poirot novels. This adaptation of another Agatha Christie Poirot novel has all the right elements that we have come to expect from this series: gorgeous sets, great guest stars, and of course the definitive Poirot, David Suchet, as always impeccable. But oh no no no no no! The producers have totally altered the storyline, adding so many jarring and gratuitous elements, that it's ridiculous.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: Surely the host would not have expected himself to be a victim? Suicide whilst putting the blame on another, also seems to be precluded, by the vicious method of the crime. It is an intriguing murder puzzle in itself – and then the many layered complexity of this case hits us. We realise that we also have four other possible murders to solve, and that these are reverse murders, where we know the identity of the murderer, but not necessarily the victim, or the crime. I know,” said [mystery novelist] Mrs. Oliver. “Badly constructed. . . . I could make a better murder any day than anything real. I’m never at a loss for a plot.” The youngest of three children of the Miller family. The Millers had two other children: Margaret Frary Miller (1879–1950), called Madge, who was eleven years Agatha's senior, and Louis Montant Miller (1880–1929), called Monty, ten years older than Agatha.

I’m so torn on this book. On the one hand, how often can you say that you have four — yes, four! —of Dame Agatha Christie’s sleuths in one book? On the other hand, the task they take on turns out to be a bit thin — at least at first.Me ha parecido básico, aburrido, tiene su gracia en algunos momentos pero no me convence porque la trama se centra específicamente en cuatro sospechosos que pueden ser posibles asesinos. Así que como lector cuentas con un 25% de probabilidad de acertar; lo que le quita tensión al asunto. En ningún momento me sentí embelesado por el caso y no sobra decir que me ha resultado profundamente previsible. Es que no hay más, no sorprende para nada. Al menos si alguien ha leído mucho de la reina del crimen le parecerá flojísimo pero comprendo que quiénes apenas empiezan con Christie consideren lo contrario. Hay una vuelta de tuercas al final pero como ya estoy acostumbrado a eso en ella pues se me hace normal. De hecho, al comienzo hay una aclaratoria de la autora que deja en evidencia que puedes estar del lado de la postura de Poirot, a quien le encantó este caso. O del lado de Hastings, quien lo no le ve lo especial. 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. The player with the You’re The Murderer!! secret card wins the game if the draw pile is exhausted and The Murderer Escapes! card is revealed, or if all of the

Cards on the Table is one of my favorites, so it was a lot of fun to hear it with voice actors and sound effects. The murder centered around a game of bridge, and Poirot’s methodology involved asking each of the four players, potential murderers all, how well they remembered both the rounds of cards dealt and the attention to detail in the room. His instinct was that one of the four would have at least noticed the other committing murder even if they did not reveal to him who the guilty party was. Whereas Mrs Oliver had no idea whodunit and acted as though she did and Inspector Battle employed the methods used at Scotland Yard, Poirot used his little gray cells to solve this case, one that utilized all four of the detectives’ collective intelligence. By conducting mind games and social experiments, Poirot would bring Shaitana’s murderer to justice and perhaps even solve some old crimes in the process. Because Poirot is never wrong.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. Here though she plays an almost meta character, with whom Christie voices her own frustrations with writing mysteries. She claims not to care about the “facts” involving real investigations, but gets caught up in the details so much that she writes herself into corners and then has to do research to found out which type of beans would be in season so as not to be inconsistent with her books. She has gained popularity writing a foreign detective (who is Finnish rather than Christie’s Belgian sleuth) and she can’t stand him but continues writing his books because he’s popular. Given Christie’s well-known dislike of Poirot this comes off as absolutely hilarious. As is often the case characters are racist about Jews, but here “Dagos” are in for their share of abuse.

Shaitana was a man who prided himself on his Mephistophelian attitude to life. He was a man of great vanity. He was also a stupid man – that’s why he is dead.”I'm done! It feels like I am finishing books up so slowly lately - June wasn't a strong reading month. 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. 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.