title: Cards on the Table: A Hercule Poirot Mystery (Hercule Poirot Mysteries)
author: Agatha Christie
description: When you think its Colonel Mustard in the basement with the crescent wrench, you owe the fun to Dame Christie. (William Dietrich, <i>New York Times</i> bestselling author of the Ethan Gage Adventures)<br /><br />The finest murder story of her career.Mrs. Christie has never been more ingenious. (Daily Mail (London))
zlib_text: Cards on the Table
  
  Cards on the Table
  Cards on the Table
  
  Cards on the Table
  
  Chapter 1
  MR. SHAITANA
  “My dear Monsieur Poirot!”
  It was a soft purring voice - a voice used deliberately as an instrument - nothing impulsive or
  unpremeditated about it. Hercule Poirot swung round.
  He bowed. He shook hands ceremoniously.
  There was something in his eye that was unusual. One would have said that this chance encounter
  awakened in him an emotion that he seldom had occasion to feel.
  “My dear Mr. Shaitana,” he said.
  They both paused. They were like duelists en garde.
  Around them a well-dressed languid London crowd eddied mildly. Voices drawled or murmured.
  “Darling - exquisite!”
  “Simply divine, aren't they, my dear?”
  It was the Exhibition of Snuffboxes at Wessex House. Admission one guinea in aid of the London
  hospitals.
  “My dear man,” said Mr. Shaitana, “how nice to see you! Not hanging or guillotining much just at
  present? Slack season in the criminal world? Or is there to be a robbery here thi