Case 11: Cards on the Table

At a dinner party in London, the enigmatic Mr. Shaitana invites four detectives and four guests he privately hints have committed murder in the past they got away with. After dinner, the guests divide into two bridge tables while their host remains in the same room, watching the play. By the end of the evening, Mr. Shaitana is found stabbed to death in his chair, apparently.

With only the four bridge players in proximity, the crime hinges not on physical evidence but on psychology, card play, and carefully observed behavior. Each suspect has a past shadowed by suspicion—and one of them has killed again.

Your mission: Use SQL to analyze bridge table rotations, reconstruct the timeline of play, and determine which guest stabbed Mr. Shaitana during the game.

About this case

Based on Cards on the Table (Agatha Christie, 1936). A mysterious host invites four amateur detectives and four suspects with shadowy pasts to a dinner party. During an evening of bridge, the host is found stabbed to death—and all eyes turn to those at the card table.

What you'll practise

This sophisticated case demands advanced SQL skills:

WHERE with multiple complex conditions — to identify suspects with hidden pasts
ORDER BY — to reconstruct bridge table rotations and the sequence of events
Psychological analysis through data — matching personality traits to criminal behavior
Pattern recognition — connecting past crimes to current evidence

The database

You'll query the suspect_info table, tracking each guest's background, past suspected crimes, their position at the bridge tables, and their movements during the evening.

Difficulty

Intermediate to Advanced. Requires sophisticated analysis combining data with psychological insight. The killer is hidden among suspects who all have criminal pasts.