Page "Hercule Poirot" Paragraph 57

In terms of a rudimentary chronology, Poirot speaks of retiring to grow marrows in Chapter 18 of The Big Four ( 1927 ), which places that novel out of published order before Roger Ackroyd.

He declines to solve a case for the Home Secretary because he is retired in Chapter One of Peril at End House ( 1932 ).

He is certainly retired at the time of Three Act Tragedy ( 1935 ) but he does not enjoy his retirement and comes repeatedly out of it thereafter when his curiosity is engaged.

Nevertheless, he continues to employ his secretary, Miss Lemon, at the time of the cases retold in Hickory Dickory Dock and Dead Man's Folly, which take place in the mid-1950s.

It is therefore better to assume that Christie provided no authoritative chronology for Poirot's retirement, but assumed that he could either be an active detective, a consulting detective or a retired detective as the needs of the immediate case required.