Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot - a retired Belgian police officer with an egg-shaped head, magnificent moustaches and great faith in his 'little grey cells' - is the detective of thirty-three of Agatha Christie's novels and more than fifty short stories, from The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920 to Curtain in 1975. Often accompanied by his friend Captain Hastings, who narrates several of the early books, and later by the detective novelist Ariadne Oliver, Poirot solves his cases by order and method rather than by chasing clues, in country houses and on trains, boats and planes. Curtain, written during the Second World War and held back until the end of Christie's life, closes the series where it began, at Styles. The Poirot novels written by later authors are not included.