Hercule Poirot

Created by Agatha Christie
(1890-1976)

“I do not approve of murder.”
— oh?

“My name is Hercule Poirot. I am probably the greatest detective in the world.”
— modest bastard, isn’t he?

Yes, yes, yes, HERCULE POIROT was so a private detective.

No, he was not hard-boiled. He wasn’t some rye-guzzling brute in a trenchcoat and fedora, with an eye for the ladies, a .45 in his hand and a bottle in the desk drawer. He was, in fact, pretty much an extension of the classic gentleman detective: slightly foppish, even prissy, definitely arrogant, a conceited little prat. To which Christie added: Belgian. An egg-shaped head. An immaculately groomed mustache. Patent leather shoes. Hair without a touch of gray (he uses Revivit). Lotsa talk about little gray cells; specifically his. Even more ego.

And fussy, wary of even the most minor of irregularities. Like refusing to eat an oddly shaped loaf of bread.

This retired Belgian police officer even had a Watson-like assistant/companion, Captain Hastings, to remind us every now and then how amazing Poirot was.

But — because he was written by Christie — there was also a hard, unflinching moral core at the center of Poirot’s being that, through sheer force of character and no matter how preposterous the crimes and their solutions got, would not be denied. He was every bit as dogged and determined as any two-fisted swinging dick from the pulps, and he could be just as cold and focussed. If you’ve ever been interested in crime or detective fiction, you’ve read him.

And yes, his occupation was that of a private detective, A world famous one at that, even if many of his cases seemed to have been dictated so often by mere circumstance.  So, like it or not, he certainly belongs in these pages.

When Christie finally pulled the plug on the character in Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (1975), The New York Times ran his obituary on its front page.

* * * * *

Agatha Christie is, of course, the Queen of Crime, and the most widely published novelist of all time. She was the author of over 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels written under the name Mary Westmacott, but is best known for creating two of the world’s most popular sleuths, Poirot and amateur sleuth Miss Marple. She also created one of the very first husband-and-wife private eye teams, Tommy and “Tuppence” Beresford. And “heart specialist”  Parker Pyne is “almost” a private eye.

When the much-loved mystery author passed away 1976, she had already made plans to ensure nobody would continue her two most loved series. She did this by killing off both amateur sleuth Miss Marple and Poirot in final novels, and arranging to have them both published posthumously.

The final Poirot, Curtain (1975), spent several months at the top of the bestseller lists, as did the final Miss Marple novel.

And that was that. Christie obviously didn’t want anyone to exhume the corpses of her two most beloved characters.

HOWEVER…

The Christie estate, however, apparently didn’t get the message. In 2014, The Monogram Murders by Sophie Hannah, a brand new Hercule Poirot novel, was published, with more “officially sanctioned” sequels promised/threatened. USA Today says Hannah did an “egoless, silky job of reviving Agatha Christie’s beloved Belgian detective Hercule Poirot,” but still…

Anyone wants to do a more proper entry on Poirot, feel free.

NOVELS

• The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
• The Murder on the Links (1923)
• The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
• The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
• Peril at End House (1932)
• Lord Edgware Dies (1933)
• Murder on the Orient Express (1934) | Buy this book
• Death in the Clouds (1935)
• Three Act Tragedy (1935)
• The ABC Murders (1936)
• Cards on the Table (1936)
• Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
• Death on the Nile (1937)
• Appointment with Death (1938)
• Dumb Witness (1937)
• Hercule Poirot’s Christmas (1939)
• One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940)
• Sad Cypress (1940)
• Evil Under the Sun (1941)
• Five Little Pigs (1943)
• Poirot on Holiday (1943)
• Problem at Pollensa Bay and Christmas Adventure (1943)
• The Hollow (1946)
• Poirot Knows the Murderer (1946)
• 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)
• Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case (1975)
• BY SOPHIE HANNAH
• The Monogram Murders (2014) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• Closed Casket (2016) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• The Mystery of the Three Quarters (2018) | Buy this book | Buy the audio| Kindle it!
• The Killings at Kingfisher Hill (2020) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night (2023) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
• The Last Death of the Year (2024) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!

SHORT STORIES & NOVELLAS

• “The Curious Disappearance of the Opalsen Pearls” (March 14, 1923, The Sketch; aka “The Jewel Robbery at the Grand Metropolitan”)
• “The Affair at the Victory Ball” (March 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim ” (March 1923, The Sketch)
• “The King of Clubs” (March 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Adventure of ‘The Western Star'” (April 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Kidnapped Prime Minister” April 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Hunter’s Lodge Case” (May 16 1923, The Sketch; aka “The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge”)
• “The Chocolate Box” (May 23 1923, The Sketch; aka “The Time Hercule Poirot Failed: The Clue of the Chocolate Box”)
• “The Adventure of the Cheap Flat” (May 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb” (September 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Veiled Lady” (October 3, 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Case of the Missing Will (October 31, 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly (October 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Adventure of the Italian Nobleman (October 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Kidnapping of Johnnie Waverly” (October 1923, The Sketch; also as “The Adventure of Johnnie Waverly”)
• “The Adventure of the Clapham Cook” (November 14 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Cornish Mystery (November 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Lost Mine (November 1923, The Sketch)
• “The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding” (December 1923, The Sketch: aka “The Theft of the Royal Ruby”)
• “In the House of the Enemy” (January 1924, The Sketch)
• “The Lady on the Stairs” (January 1924, The Sketch)
• “The Radium Thieves” (January 1924, The Sketch)
• “The Unexpected Guest” (January 1924, The Sketch)
• “The Baited Trap” (Febuary 1924, The Sketch)
• “The Chess Problem” (Febuary 1924, The Sketch)
• “The Peroxide Blonde” (Febuary 1924, The Sketch)
• “The Yellow Jasmine Mystery” (Febuary 1924, The Sketch)
• “The Crag in the Dolomites” (March 1924, The Sketch)
• “The Mystery of the Plymouth Express” (1924; also as “The Plymouth Express”)
• “The Double Clue” (1925, Blue Book; aka “The Dubious Clue”)
• “The Incredible Theft” (1925)
• “The Market Basing Mystery” (1925)
• “The Million Dollar Bank Robbery” (1925; aka “The Million-Dollar Bond Robbery”)
• “The Tragedy at Marsden Manor” (1925; aka “The Tragedy at Marsdon Manor”)
• “The Under Dog” (April 1 1926, Mystery Magazine)
• “In the Third Floor Flat (January 5 1929, Detective Story Magazine; aka “The Third-Floor Flat”)
• “Wasps’ Nest” (March 9 1929, Detective Story Magazine; aka “The Worst of All”)
• “By Road or Rail’ (March 30, 1929, Detective Story Magazine; also as “Double Sin”)
• “The Underdog” (1929, 2 New Crime Stories)
• “Dead Man’s Mirror” (1931)
• “The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest” (January 1932, The Strand)
• “The Mystery of the Spanish Chest” (January 1932, The Strand)
• “The Second Gong” (June 1932, Ladies Home Journal)
• “How Does Your Garden Grow?” (June 1935, Ladies Home Journal)
• “Crime in Cabin 66” (December 1935, The Strand)
• “The Mystery of the Crime in Cabin” (December 1935, The Strand; aka “Crime in Cabin 66” and “Problem at Sea”)
• “Poirot and the Triangle at Rhodes” (May 1936, The Strand; aka “Triangle at Rhodes”)
• “Poirot and the Regatta Mystery” (June 1936, The Strand; aka as “The Regatta Mystery”)
• “The Adventure of the King of Clubs” (1936, Mystery Monthly; aka as “The King of Clubs”)
• “Yellow Iris” (July 1937, The Strand)
• “The Dream” (October 23 1937, The Saturday Evening Post)
• “The Cretan Bull” (September 1939, This Week)
• “The Disappearance of Winnie King” (September 1939, This Week; also as “The Girdle of Hippolyte”)
• “The Invisible Enemy” (September 1939, This Week; also as “The Lernean Hydra”
• “The Lernean Hydra” (September 1939, This Week)
• “Midnight Madness” (September 1939, This Week); also as “The Cretan Bull”)
• “The Stymphalean Birds” (September 1939, This Week; aka “The Vulture Women”)
• “The Nemean Lion” (November 1939, The Strand)
• “The Arcadian Deer” (January 1940, The Strand)
• “The Erymanthian Boar” (Febuary 1940, The Strand)
• “The Augean Stables” (March 1940, The Strand)
• “The Flock of Geryon” (May 1940, This Week)
• “Weird Monster” (May 1940, This Week; also as “The Flock of Geryon”)
• “The Horses of Diomede” (June 1940, The Strand)
• “The Apples of the Hesperides” (September 1940, The Strand)
• “Four and Twenty Blackbirds” (November 1940, Colliers; aka “Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds)
• “The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest” (1943, Bantam)
• “The Mystery of the Crime in Cabin 66” (1943, Bantam)
• “Poirot and the Regatta Mystery” (1943, Bantam)
• “The Capture of Cerberus” (1947, This Week; aka “The Capture of Cerberus”)
• “Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly” (2013, digital) |Kindle it!
• DATE UNKNOWN
• “Christmas Adventure”
• “The Dartmoor Adventure”
• “The Enemy Strikes”
• “The Lemesurier Inheritance”
• “The Million Pound Robbery”
• “Murder in the Mews”
• “The Submarine Plans”

COLLECTIONS

• Poirot Investigates (1924)
• The Big Four (1927)
• Murder in the Mews (1937)
• The Veiled Lady and The Mystery of the Baghdad Chest (1944)
• Poirot Lends a Hand (1946)
• The Labours of Hercules (1947)
• The Under Dog and other stories (1951)
• Poirot’s Early Cases (1974)
• Hercule Poirot’s Casebook (1984)
• Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Volume II (1990)
• Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Volume III (1991)
• Agatha Christie’s Poirot. Volume IV (1993)
• Poirot Short Stories (1996)
• Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories (1999)
• Midwinter Murder: Fireside Tales from the Queen of Mystery (2020) | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
  Featuring winter and holiday-themed stories featuring Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple, or Tommy and Tuppence. Of particular interest is the Poirot story “Christmas Adventure”–printed here for the first time in the U.S.

FILMS

Yes, I know. I’m missing about 100 films and television shows here. One of these days…

• MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
  (1974, Paramount)
  Based on the novel by Agatha Christie
  Screenplay by Paul Dehn and Anthony Shaffer (uncredited)
  Directed by Sidney Lumet
  Starring Albert Finney as HERCULE POIROT
  Also starring Lauren Bacall, Martin Balsam, Ingrid Bergman, Jacqueline Bisset, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Sean Connery, John Gielgud, Wendy Hiller, Anthony Perkins, Vanessa Redgrave, Rachel Roberts, Richard Widmark, Michael York, Colin Blakely
  Agatha Christie thought this star-studded production was the only film adaptation with which she was completely satisfied, and that Albert Finney’s performance came closest to her vision of Poirot, although she was reportedly unimpressed with his mustache—it was too subtle.
• DEATH ON THE NILE
  (1978, Mersham Productions)
  Based on the novel by Agatha Christie
  Screenplay by Anthony Shaffer
  Directed by John Guillermin
  Starring Peter Ustinov as HERCULE POIROT
  Also starring David Niven, Maggie Smith, Jane Birkin, Lois Chiles, Bette Davis, Olivia Hussey, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, Simon MacCorkindale, Mia Farrow
• EVIL UNDER THE SUN
  (1982, EMI/Mersham Productions)
  Based on the novel by Agatha Christie
  Screenplay by Anthony Shaffer and Barry Sandler (uncredited)
  Directed by Guy Hamilton
  Starring Peter Ustinov as HERCULE POIROT
  Also starring Colin Blakely, Jane Birkin, Nicholas Clay, Maggie Smith, Roddy McDowall, Sylvia Miles, James Mason, Denis Quilley, Diana Rigg, Emily Hone, John Alderson, Paul Antrim, Cyril Conway … Police Surgeon
• MURDER ON THE ORIENT EXPRESS
  (2017, Twentieth Century Fox)
  Based on the novel by Agatha Christie
  Screenplay by Michael Green
  Directed by Kenneth Branagh
  Starring Kenneth Branagh as HERCULE POIROT
  Also starring Mia Farrow, Simon MacCorkindale
• DEATH ON THE NILE
  (2021, 20th Century Studios)
  Based on the novel by Agatha Christie
  Screenplay by Michael Green
  Directed by Kenneth Branagh
  Starring Kenneth Branagh as HERCULE POIROT
  Also starring Gal Gadot, Armie Hammer, Annette Bening
• A HAUNTING IN VENICE
  (2023,
  Based on the novel Hallowe’en Party by Agatha Christie
  Screenplay by Michael Green
  Directed by Kenneth Branagh
  Starring Kenneth Branagh as HERCULE POIROT
  Also starring  Michelle Yeoh, Dylan Corbett-Bader, Tina Fey, Amir El-Masry, Riccardo Scamarcio, Jude Hill, Fernando Piloni, Lorenzo Acquaviva, David Menkin, Camille Cottin, Kelly Reill, Yaw Nimako-Asamoah, Jamie Dornan, Rowan Robinson,

FURTHER INVESTIGATION

• Aldridge, Mark,
  Agatha Christie’s Poirot: The Greatest Detective in the World | Buy this book | Buy the audio | Kindle it!
  (Harper Collins, 2020)
  A lively and highly readable valentine to the legendary little Belgian and his gray cells, featuring new info and helpful pieces of context. The hardcover boasts over 400 illustrations.

Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith. Poirot graphic courtesy of Kisspng.com.