Inspector Battle
The Scotland Yard detective who put his cards on the table beside Poirot.
Superintendent Battle is a detective from Scotland Yard in Agatha Christie's novels. He is introduced in The Secret of Chimneys and works alongside Hercule Poirot in Cards on the Table (1936), where he is one of four crime professionals invited to Mr Shaitana's dinner party.
Lore & Background
In Cards on the Table, Poirot's fellow guests are secret serviceman Colonel Race, the mystery writer Ariadne Oliver and Superintendent Battle of Scotland Yard, together with four people Shaitana believes to be murderers. After bridge, Shaitana is found murdered. Leading the police investigation, Battle agrees to put his "cards on the table" and to let the other professionals make their own enquiries.
Reader's Guide
Battle also appears in The Secret of Chimneys and The Seven Dials Mystery, which do not feature Poirot. In The Clocks, the agent Colin Lamb is hinted to be his son; ITV's adaptation makes Lamb the son of Colonel Race instead. In Curtain, Poirot recalls telling Battle in Cards on the Table that vigilantism "happens".
More in Characters & Cast
Elsewhere in Hercule Poirot
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