Hercule Poirot

Hercule Poirot, fictional Belgian detective created by English mystery writer Agatha Christie. He appears in 33 novels by Christie, beginning with her literary debut The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). His final appearance and death occur in the novel Curtain (1975). Poirot also appears in more than 50 short stories as well as several plays written by Christie. He also appears in several continuation novels written by author Sophie Hannah, which have been published since 2014.

Character summary

Short and somewhat vain, with an “egg-shaped head,” brilliantined hair, and a waxed mustache of which he is inordinately proud, the aging bachelor Poirot enjoys his creature comforts. Relying on psychology and deductive reasoning—“order and method” and his “little grey cells” (his brain power)—to solve crimes, Poirot is notably meticulous in his personal habits and his professional methodology. Christie was said to have based Poirot’s mannerisms on her observation of World War I Belgian refugees. Indeed, Poirot himself is a World War I refugee, as discussed in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, in which he solves the murder of his sponsor, the wealthy and elderly owner of Styles Court, the setting for both Poirot’s first case and his last.

Poirot’s fastidiousness, his obsession with symmetry (he is outraged that “every hen lays an egg of a different size”), and his self-importance make him something of a comedic figure. This provides sharp relief during the story’s inevitable denouement. He solves crimes of the most ingenious nature and has failed to detect the murderer in only one case, detailed in the short story “The Chocolate Box” (1923). Poirot has the greatest contempt for physical exertion in methods of detection (in The Murder on the Links [1923] he describes rival French detective Giraud, who energetically follows a trail of clues, as a “human foxhound”) and has occasionally solved a case without leaving his home (as in the short stories “The Disappearance of Mr. Davenheim” and “The Mystery of Hunter’s Lodge” [both 1923]).

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Getting Into (Fictional) Character

Poirot has a number of associates who appear in several books and stories. Chief among them is Captain Hastings, the Watson to Poirot’s Holmes, who appears in the first and last cases as well as several in between. Chief Inspector Japp of Scotland Yard is a frequent, though sometimes reluctant, collaborator. Poirot’s efficient and impersonal secretary Miss Lemon plays a relatively minor role, except in Hickory Dickory Dock (1955), in which a series of crimes take place in a student hostel where Miss Lemon’s sister is the warden. Christie’s self-referential creation, Ariadne Oliver, is a mystery novelist who appears in multiple novels, such as Mrs. McGinty’s Dead (1952) and Third Girl (1966). In addition to assisting in Poirot’s investigations, she plays a pivotal role in advancing the plot. Additionally the Countess Vera Rossakoff, a Russian aristocrat of dubious morality for whom Poirot nurses a secret admiration, flits in and out of his life.

Novels and stories centering Poirot feature a variety of settings. Several murders take place on modes of transport—trains (“The Plymouth Express” [1923], The Mystery of the Blue Train, and Murder on the Orient Express [1934]), boats (Death on the Nile [1937] and “Problem at Sea” [1939]), and even a plane (Death in the Clouds [1935]). Other unusual locales include an archaeological dig (Murder in Mesopotamia [1936]), a girls’ school (Cat Among the Pigeons [1959]), and a village fete (Dead Man’s Folly [1956]).

Notable books featuring Poirot

This section contains spoilers.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd: Noted for its plot twist ending, in which Poirot reveals the narrator Dr. James Sheppard as the murderer. Despite being one of the earliest Poirot novels, it depicts Poirot as having retired to the country to grow vegetable marrows. In later works he lives in London, having emerged from retirement to work as a private detective.

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Murder on the Orient Express: A skilfully constructed whodunnit set on a train from Istanbul to Calais, in which Poirot solves the murder of a former criminal who had kidnapped and murdered a child. The novel is unusual among other works by Christie for two reasons—Poirot ultimately reveals that all 12 suspects colluded in the murder, and he allows them to go free.

The ABC Murders (1936): Noteworthy for the murderer’s direct communications with Poirot, this novel contains advance warnings of murders with alliterative features.

Death on the Nile: Famously set in Egypt on a cruise down the Nile. Poirot solves a series of murders and reveals the murderers as two people who had professed animosity toward each other.

Five Little Pigs (1942): Set 16 years after a murder has taken place and the supposed murderer has been hanged. Poirot finds the real killer by relying on the often unreliable (and in one case, certainly so) testimonies of five suspects.

Poirot’s death

Christie famously came to dislike her most popular literary invention—she described him as “rather insufferable”— feeling that Poirot limited her creativity. Her public, however, never came to share this view, such that when Poirot died in Curtain (1975; Christie wrote the manuscript during World War II (1939–45) and then locked it in a safe), The New York Times published an obituary. Excerpts:

Hercule Poirot, a Belgian detective who became internationally famous, has died in England. His age was unknown....

At the end of his life, he was arthritic and had a bad heart. He was in a wheelchair often, and was carried from his bedroom to the public lounge at Styles Court, a nursing home in Essex, wearing a wig and false mustaches to mask the signs of age that offended his vanity. In his active days, he was always impeccably dressed.

Adaptations

The first actor to play Hercule Poirot was Charles Laughton, who starred in a 1928 staging of the play Alibi (based on The Murder of Roger Ackroyd). Poirot was featured in a number of film adaptations, played memorably by such actors as Tony Randall (The Alphabet Murders [1965]), Albert Finney (Murder on the Orient Express [1974]), and Peter Ustinov (Death on the Nile [1978]; Evil Under the Sun [1982]; and Appointment with Death [1988]; as well as several made-for-television movies).

The role was given an exquisite touch by actor David Suchet in the television series Agatha Christie: Poirot (1989–2013). Suchet was also featured as Poirot in video games. John Malkovich played Poirot in a 2018 television miniseries, and Kenneth Branagh starred as Poirot in several movies that he also directed, including Murder on the Orient Express (2017), Death on the Nile (2022), and A Haunting in Venice (2023).