Characters in Cards on the Table

Hercule Poirot

Belgian detective who treats the case as a pure exercise in psychology, reading the suspects through their bridge play and temperament rather than physical evidence.

Also in The Chocolate Box, The Kidnapped Prime Minister: a Hercule Poirot Short Story #2, The Lemesurier Inheritance, The Affair at the Victory Ball, The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim, The Plymouth Express: a Hercule Poirot Short Story, The Adventure of the Cheap Flat: a Hercule Poirot Short Story, The Submarine Plans: a Hercule Poirot Short Story, The Adventure of the Clapham Cook: a Hercule Poirot Short Story, The Cornish Mystery: a Hercule Poirot Short Story

Superintendent Battle

Stolid Scotland Yard official with a wooden, expressionless manner that conceals a shrewd, methodical mind.

Also in The Secret of Chimneys, The Seven Dials Mystery, Murder is Easy, Towards Zero

Colonel Race

Reserved Secret Service man brought in for his knowledge of one suspect's overseas past.

Also in The Man in the Brown Suit, Death on the Nile, Sparkling Cyanide

Ariadne Oliver

Eccentric, apple-loving crime novelist and Christie's self-parody, making her first appearance alongside Poirot and offering breezy theories about her own fictional methods.

Also in Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly, Mrs. McGinty's Dead, Dead Man's Folly, Third Girl, Hallowe'en Party, Elephants Can Remember

Mr Shaitana

Theatrical, vaguely menacing collector who courts danger by gathering people he believes are undetected murderers, and pays for it with his life.

Dr Roberts

Genial, hearty general practitioner, breezily confident and quick to put others at ease.

Mrs Lorrimer

Cool, intelligent and self-possessed widow, an exceptional bridge player whose precise memory of the cards proves significant.

Major Despard

Composed big-game hunter and explorer, decisive and outwardly unflappable, with a past in remote corners of the world.

Anne Meredith

Quiet, nervous young woman of modest means whose timid manner and economical habits draw scrutiny.

Rhoda Dawes

Anne Meredith's frank, adventurous and generous friend and flatmate, and a devoted fan of Ariadne Oliver's detective novels.

Mrs. Luxmore

A widow whose husband died in suspicious circumstances in South America, and who claims a passionate involvement with Major Despard.

Miss Burgess

Dr. Roberts's loyal secretary, tight-lipped at first but a valuable source of information about his past patients.

Elsie Batt

A former maid of Mrs. Craddock and a patient of Dr. Roberts, whose recollections fill in the background to the Craddocks' deaths.

Mrs. Craddock

Elsie Batt's former employer, whose death in the past comes up as the detectives dig into Dr. Roberts's history.

Sven Hjerson

The lanky, vegetarian Finnish detective who stars in Ariadne Oliver's novels; he exists only in her fiction.