Page "Hercule Poirot" Paragraph 49

It was during this time he met the Countess Vera Rossakoff, a glamorous jewel thief.

The history of the Countess is, like Poirot's, steeped in mystery.

She claims to have been a member of the Russian aristocracy before the Russian Revolution and suffered greatly as a result, but how much of that story is true is an open question.

Even Poirot acknowledges that Rossakoff has told several wildly varying accounts of her early life.

Poirot later became smitten with the woman and allowed her to escape justice.