Cards on the Table

A BBC Radio 4 full-cast dramatisation starring John Moffatt as Hercule Poirot with Stephanie Cole and Donald Sinden.

Hercule Poirot, along with three other luminaries from the world of crime detection, is invited to dinner by the renowned London socialite Dr Shaitana. Also on the guest list are four members of what Shaitana calls his Black Museum - a collection of murderers who have each succeeded in 'getting away with it'.

After midnight, when the guests prepare to leave, they make a terrible discovery. Their host is dead in his armchair, stabbed in the chest.

The four sleuths are thus faced with one murder and a quartet of likely suspects. Working both together and independently, they investigate the past of the Black Museum's finest in order to determine the most likely killer.

Poirot finds that many hindrances and distractions are thrown in his way, as he attempts to read the meaning of the cards which each suspect has placed on the table.