Cards on the Table is one of the most famous novels by Agatha Christie, and along with it a very beautiful and interesting detective stories.
The book has four suspects, four detectives, secrets of the past and forgotten crimes, interesting plot moves and an unpredictable denouement. The circle of suspects is precisely defined from the very beginning, and the unraveling of the case must be approached purely psychologically, basing on the character and mindset of the possible criminal. The reader should not forget that all the suspects once in the past have already stepped out of line, and everyone already has the experience of perfect murder.
Agatha Christie masterfully shows the psychological characteristics of each suspect, proving that a person can only commit a crime that is characteristic of his nature. In this instance, the essence will be reduced to the fact that you should not overestimate yourself, flirting with what you cannot cope with. Otherwise, one will not see the success of the next, supposedly funny, joke.
The ability to confuse the reader is a great gift that, unfortunately, not many authors own. However, Agatha Christie is able to do it so skillfully that no praise is enough. When the reader begins to think that, at least he understands something in the story and suddenly everything turns upside down. The reader thinks that this time he will guess exactly what is what. Nevertheless, he is wrong. Christie creates so many doubts for the reader; so many versions are swarming in a head, but all by.
This detective story does have the theme of a crime of a sexual nature or something like that. Unlike many modern detectives, in her work there are practically no scenes of rudeness, violence and pools of blood. Whatever one may say, it has morality. Agatha Christie is against the criminal and is for the innocent victim. “No one could have thought that the time would come, when detective stories would be read because of the scenes of violence, described in them, for the sake of getting sadistic pleasure from cruelty for the sake of cruelty ...”, she wrote in her autobiography. To her mind, such scenes dull the feeling of compassion and do not allow the reader to turn his mind to the main theme of the novel.
In the book Cards on the Table, the author, instead of hiding the killer, almost immediately outlines the circle to which the criminal belongs. Accordingly, the accents are set differently: psychological factors come to the fore, not material evidence (cigarette butts, accidentally dropped objects, etc.), or a careful countdown – up to a minute. The main place is entirely devoted to human drama, and detective intrigue is now entirely subordinate to it. The reader is now offered not only to compare the facts, but also, having penetrated into the subtleties of the relationship and the characters of the main heroes, correctly determine the motive of the crime.
