Hercule poirot

This brilliant Belgian detective had a long and glorious career, starring in thirty-three novels and fifty-four short stories. Hercule appeared in Agatha Christie's first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, published in 1920. Before his escape to England during WWI, Poirot, a retired Belgian police officer, was a celebrated private detective on the Continent. During these years, Poirot became acquainted with Arthur Hastings who would later become his trusted sidekick and the occasional narrator of his investigations.

Here is how Hastings first described Poirot in The Mysterious Affair at Styles: "He was hardly more than five feet four inches but carried himself with great dignity. His head was exactly the shape of an egg, and he always perched it a little on one side. His moustache was very stiff and military. The neatness of his attire was almost incredible; I believe a speck of dust would have caused him more pain than a bullet wound."

As Poirot's career progressed he moved into Whitehaven Mansions, chosen for its symmetry and hired the terrifyingly efficient Miss Felicity Lemon as his secretary. From here he employed his infamous 'little grey cells' to solve a dazzling array of complex crimes including some of Agatha Christie's most famous novels: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Murder on the Orient Express, and Death on the Nile. His investigative methods were characterised by the active pursuit of the psychology of the murderer, noting tiny details and freudian slips by asking a series of seemingly pointless questions.

Poirot finished every case with a dramatic dénouement which satisfied his egotism and confirmed once again that he was "the greatest mind in Europe" (Three Act Tragedy). His love of elegance, beauty and precision and eccentric mannerisms were often ridiculed by the local bumbling policemen, but it is always Poirot who has the last word.

By his final appearance in Curtain (1975), Poirot was confined to a wheelchair, although his little grey cells remained as sharp as ever. Upon his death, Hercule Poirot became the only fictional character ever to be honored with an obituary on the front page of The New York Times.