Cards On The Table Trivia Quiz

Answer: Murderers that got away with with it

After Hercule Poirot encounters Mr. Shaitana, a thoroughly terrible man with a carefully cultivated Mephistophelian air, at an exhibit of snuff boxes, Mr. Shaitana arranges a dinner party for Poirot. He tells Poirot he will invite to the dinner party his collection of people who have gotten away with murder.

Answer: Eight

In a demonstration of Mr. Shaitana's warped sense of humor, he invited eight guests to his dangerous dinner party. There were four sleuths: Hercule Poirot (private investigator), Superintendent Battle (Scotland Yard), Colonel Race (Secret Service), and Mrs. Ariadne Oliver (mystery writer). Mrs. Lorrimer, Major Despard, Dr. Roberts, and Miss Anne Meredith were Shaitana's collection of murderers. "Cards On The Table" (1936) was the first book that Poirot and Mrs. Oliver appeared in together.

Answer: They played bridge.

All of Mr. Shaitana's eight guests played bridge. The sleuths: Mrs. Oliver, Hercule Poirot, Colonel Race, and Superintendent Battle played together at a table set up in the drawing room. The murderers: Mrs. Lorrimer, Miss Anne Meredith, Major Despard, and Dr. Roberts, played in the smoking room. Mr. Shaitana did not play, but after checking on the play of his guests, he sat down in a chair by the fireplace in the dimly lit smoking room.

In retrospect that was a highly dangerous thing for him to do, wasn't it?

Answer: He was stabbed with a stiletto.

Mr. Shaitana was playing a very dangerous game, indeed. One of his invited murderers, knowing Shaitana's diabolic sense of humor, believed Mr. Shaitana was going to reveal them to the sleuths at the end of the evening. He (or she) stole and hid a long thin dagger with a bejewelled head that Shaitana had displayed on a table.

After dinner, the murderer quietly stuck it into Mr. Shaitana while the others had their attention focused on their cards.

Answer: Colonel Race

Colonel Race was not a suspect. We are told, in describing Race: "Secret Service is a melodramatic term, but it described pretty accurately to the lay mind the nature and scope of Colonel Race's activities". Colonel Race used his connections to check-out the past of Major Despard for Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard.

Answer: Rhoda Dawes

Rhoda Dawes went to Mrs. Oliver's flat and told her something that Anne Meredith had not told either Superintendent Battle nor Mrs. Oliver. She told Mrs. Oliver that Anne had once been the companion of a woman who had died from swallowing poison.

Answer: Major Despard

Major Despard goes down to Wendon Cottage in Wallingford and tells Anne Meredith that she should hire herself a solicitor. He recommends that she go to his own London solicitor, Mr. Myherne.

Answer: Despard shot her husband in a fit of jealousy over her.

The very dramatic Mrs. Luxmore had a wonderful time telling Hercule Poirot all about how Major Despard had murdered her husband, because Despard had fallen madly in love with her. The version that Major Despard told Poirot, and the one Poirot was inclined to believe, was a much different tale than Mrs. Luxmore's.

Answer: She steals two pairs of expensive silk stockings from Poirot.

On the guise of having Anne Meredith pick out six pairs of very expensive silk stockings for Poirot to send to his nieces, Poirot lays a trap for Anne. While he is busy with Rhoda Dawes, Anne does pick out six pairs as Poirot asks, but after she leaves, Poirot counts the stockings. Instead of nineteen pairs, there are only seventeen pairs. Anne had taken two pairs.

Answer: False

Captain Hastings is not featured in "Cards On The Table".

Answer: Anne Meredith

Mrs. Lorrimer tells Poirot that she saw Anne Meredith bending over Mr. Shaitana, and that Anne killed him. Mrs. Lorrimer was wrong. Anne Meredith was not Shaitana's killer.

Answer: She is murdered by the person who killed Mr. Shaitana.

Mrs. Lorrimer's death is caused by the killer of Mr. Shaitana in order to lay the blame for Shaitana's murder on her. She was injected with a drug called Evipan, which coupled with her regular sleeping medicine, caused her death.

Answer: Anne Meredith

It backfired, though. Neither Anne nor Rhoda could swim, but when Anne tipped Rhoda into the water, the punt overturned, spilling Anne in, too. Major Despard rescued Rhoda, but Anne drowned before she could be pulled out of the water. Anne did not know that Rhoda had told Mrs. Oliver that there had been a poisoning death in the house where Anne had previously been employed. Anne had been the companion to Mrs. Elton in Devonshire, and Mrs. Elton drank poison that was stored in a Syrup of Figs bottle. Anne was afraid that Rhoda would tell Battle about the incident. Do you remember "The Pale Horse", the wonderful 1961 Christie mystery? It also features Rhoda and Despard, now a married couple. My sincere thanks to raer, a wonderful quizmaker and friend, for this info.

Answer: Dr. Roberts

Dr. Roberts murdered Mr. Shaitana, because he was afraid that Shaitana would reveal, at the end of the evening, that Dr. Roberts had killed both Mr. and Mrs. Craddock. He had infected Mr. Craddock's shaving brush with anthrax, and had given Mrs. Craddock an injection which caused her to die of a rare type of blood poisoning. Dr. Roberts also murdered Mrs. Lorrimer.

He was quite the murdering physician, wasn't he?

Answer: Three

Mr. Shaitana and Mrs. Lorrimer were murdered by Dr. Roberts, and Anne Meredith accidentally drowned. Actually, three of the nine (counting Shaitana) who were at the dinner party died. Of the four people in Mr. Shaitana's collection of murderers who had gotten away with it, only Major Despard was thought to be not guilty by Hercule Poirot. I hope you have enjoyed my quiz on one of Hercule Poirot's most unusual mysteries.