Cards on the Table by Agatha Christie

Honestly, I don't think I'd ever heard of this book before diving into it. But Cards on the Table was one of the more delightful and less formulaic of Christie's Poirot fare.

A party is thrown by Mr. Shaitana, a boisterous host who imagines he has a keen eye for murder as an art form. When Mr. Shaitana winds up dead at his own party — which was a rather tame affair for sure . . . a running bridge game and a cozy fire — it's up to Poirot and the detectives, amateur and professional, who had made up half of the guest list. The other half of the invitations went to four people who may well be murderers.

Poirot was at his most charming and witty, and the characters surrounding him held their own. I'm unfamiliar with the recurring characters in this one, but I know of Colonel Race by name — and am now looking forward to reading more with him as well as with the other two: Superintendent Battle and Ariadne Oliver.

Audiobook, as narrated by Hugh Fraser: Fraser did a wonderful job. Though his accents would blend together a bit between transitions, especially when narrating a conversation between Poirot and someone English, I still found his voice and performance perfectly suited for Christie. Never venturing into anything too over-the-top, he still kept the overall mood of Christie's novel lifted and cozy.