Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot, the primary fictional detective of Agatha Christie's novels, appears in over 30 books. The character was born in Belgium, and has worked as a Belgian police officer, but moved to England after World War I and started a second career as a private detective. Poirot is remarkable for his small stature and egg-shaped head, his dandified dressing habits, his absolute obsession with neatness, and his disdain for detective methods that include crawling on hands and knees and looking for clues. He prefers to examine the psychology of a crime, once even betting his best friend and sometime partner, Arthur Hastings, that he could solve a case simply by sitting in and easy chair and using his "little grey cells."

The Poirot books take readers through the whole of his life in England, from the first book (The Mysterious Affair at Styles), where he is a refugee staying at Styles, to the last Poirot book (Curtain[?]), where he visits Styles once again. In between, Poirot solves cases outside of England as well, including perhaps his most famous case, Murder on the Orient Express.

While the majority of the supporting cast in the Poirot stories is always different, some characters do show up more often. Arthur Hastings, whom Poirot met almost immediately after arriving in England, becomes his life-long partner and appears in many of the novels and stories. Other frequently recurring characters include the detective novelist Ariadne Oliver[?], who is clearly Agatha Christie's humorous self-caricature. Chief Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard appears in many of the stories, as well.

Agatha Christie books featuring Hercule Poirot Short story collections listed as ss

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
• Murder on the Links[?] (1923)
• Poirot Investigates[?] (1924, ss)
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
• The Big Four[?] (1927)
• The Mystery of the Blue Train[?] (1928)
  
  David Suchet
• Peril at End House[?] (1932)
• Lord Edgware Dies (1933)
• Murder on the Orient Express (1934)
• Three Act Tragedy[?] (1935)
• Death in the Clouds (1935)
• The A.B.C. Murders (1936)
• Cards on the Table (1936)
• Murder in Mesopotamia[?] (1936)
• Death on the Nile[?] (1937)
• Dumb Witness[?] (1937)
• Murder in the Mews[?] (1937, ss)
• Appointment with Death[?] (1938)
• Hercule Poirot's Christmas[?] (1939)
• One, Two, Buckle My Shoe[?] (1940)
• Sad Cypress[?] (1940)
• Evil under the Sun[?] (1941)
  
  Peter Ustinov as Hercule Poirot
• Five Little Pigs[?] (1942)
• The Hollow[?] (1946)
• The Labours of Hercules[?] (1947)
• Taken at the Flood[?] (1948)
• Mrs McGinty's Dead[?] (1952)
• After the Funeral[?] (1953)
• Hickory Dickory Dock[?] (1955)
• Dead Man's Folly[?] (1956)
• Cat Among the Pigeons[?] (1959)
• The Clocks[?] (1963)
• Third Girl[?] (1966)
• Hallowe'en Party[?] (1969)
• Elephants Can Remember[?] (1972)
• Poirot's Early Cases[?] (1974, ss)
• Curtain[?] (1975)

Movies Poirot has appeared in movies, too, played by Tony Randall[?] (The Alphabet Murders[?], 1965), Albert Finney (Murder on the Orient Express), and Peter Ustinov (Death on the Nile[?] and other films). However, many think the definitive Hercule Poirot portrayal is by David Suchet, who appeared in several television episodes made by Granada Television from the 1990s (which are often rerun on the A&E channel in the U.S.). The television dramatisations starring Suchet appeared under the series title Poirot.

See also Jane Marple.