Cards on the Table characters

Appears from the start

The Belgian detective, invited to a dinner whose host promises to display his private collection of people who have killed without being caught. Poirot distrusts both the boast and the host's taste for dangerous effects, but accepts and becomes one of four investigators studying the same closed circle.

Appears from the start

A wealthy collector of curiosities, secrets, and dangerous acquaintances. He enjoys making people uncomfortable and claims he can recognise those who have escaped justice. His dinner party places four investigators and four guests with shadowed pasts at separate bridge tables.

Appears from the start

A successful writer of detective stories, energetic, imaginative, and inclined to prefer dramatic theories to ordinary facts. Shaitana invites her as one of his four representatives of detection, and she conducts her own inquiries among the women connected with the suspects.

Appears from the start

A senior Scotland Yard officer whose solid manner conceals a patient understanding of people. He represents official police work at Shaitana's dinner and coordinates the inquiry without dismissing Poirot's less conventional questions.

Appears from the start

A British officer whose work has taken him through military and intelligence circles abroad. Cool, discreet, and accustomed to judging danger, he is the fourth investigator at the dinner and follows the international histories behind the guests.

First appears in chapter 2

A fashionable physician with a large practice, an easy bedside manner, and the confidence of a man used to being welcomed into private homes. He plays bridge boldly and brings the same expansive good humour to Shaitana's dinner.

First appears in chapter 2

An elegant widow and exceptionally strong bridge player, composed, intelligent, and unsentimental. She remembers every card and makes few unnecessary statements.

First appears in chapter 2

A young woman of modest means who shares a cottage with her friend Rhoda Dawes. Shy and anxious under questioning, she has worked as a companion and carries a strong fear that an incident from an earlier household may be brought into the open.

First appears in chapter 2

An explorer and former army officer, quiet, self-contained, and more comfortable with action than explanation. His reserve gives Shaitana ample opportunity for insinuation without immediate contradiction.

First appears in chapter 17

Anne Meredith's practical, outspoken housemate and friend. She is less easily intimidated than Anne and helps Mrs Oliver reconstruct the circumstances of Anne's former employment. Her frankness also attracts Major Despard's attention.

First appears in chapter 20

The widow of an explorer who died during an expedition with Major Despard. Her account of her marriage and of Despard's conduct complicates the version suggested by Shaitana's insinuations.

First appears in chapter 16

A former domestic servant in the household of one of Dr Roberts's patients. Her recollection of illness, treatment, and household tensions gives Battle a view of an old death from below stairs.