Page "Hercule Poirot" Paragraph 22

As early as Murder on the Links, where he still largely depends on clues, Poirot mocks a rival " bloodhound " detective who focuses on the traditional trail of clues that had been established in detective fiction by the example of Sherlock Holmes: footprints, fingerprints and cigar ash.

From this point on he establishes himself as a psychological detective who proceeds not by a painstaking examination of the crime scene, but by enquiring either into the nature of the victim or the psychology of the murderer.

Central to his behaviour in the later novels is the underlying assumption that particular crimes are only committed by particular types of people.