Holtorf ’ s description of the archaeologist as a detective is very similar to Christie ’ s Poirot who is hugely observant and is very careful to look at the small details as they often impart the most information.

Hercule Poirot (; ) is a fictional Belgian detective, created by Agatha Christie.

Along with Miss Marple, Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-lived characters, appearing in 33 novels, one play, and more than 50 short stories published between 1920 and 1975 and set in the same era.

A more obvious influence on the early Poirot stories is that of Arthur Conan Doyle.

On publication of the latter, Poirot was the only fictional character to be given an obituary in the New York Times ; 6 August 1975 " Hercule Poirot is Dead ; Famed Belgian Detective ".

Here is how Captain Arthur Hastings first describes Poirot:

This is how Agatha Christie describes Poirot in The Murder on the Orient Express in the initial pages:

Poirot has dark hair, which he dyes later in life ( though many of his screen incarnations are portrayed as bald or balding ), and green eyes that are repeatedly described as shining " like a cat's " when he is struck by a clever idea.

Poirot is extremely punctual and carries a turnip pocket watch almost to the end of his career.

Poirot, as mentioned in Curtain and The Clocks, is extremely fond of classical music, particularly Mozart and Bach.

In The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot operates as a fairly conventional, clue-based detective, depending on logic, which is represented in his vocabulary by two common phrases: his use of " the little grey cells " and " order and method ".

Irritating to Hastings is the fact that Poirot will sometimes conceal from him important details of his plans, as in The Big Four where Hastings is kept in the dark throughout the climax.

This aspect of Poirot is less evident in the later novels, partly because there is rarely a narrator so there is no one for Poirot to mislead.

Poirot is also willing to appear more foreign or vain than he really is in an effort to make people underestimate him.

In the later novels Christie often uses the word mountebank when Poirot is being assessed by other characters, showing that he has successfully passed himself off as a charlatan or fraud.

Poirot pretends to have stomach cramps, and when he is alone with Hastings, he quickly tells him that Templeton's son is number Four, as he dabbed up the crumbs with a small slice of bread at the table.

Japp is able to tell Poirot something he doesn't know – that one of the jewels has been pawned by a known thief called " Red Narky " who usually works with a woman called Gracie Kidd but he seems to be alone this time.

It has been said that twelve cases related in The Labours of Hercules ( 1947 ) must refer to a different retirement, but the fact that Poirot specifically says that he intends to grow marrows indicates that these stories also take place before Roger Ackroyd, and presumably Poirot closed his agency once he had completed them.

Though this may be the first published book of Miss Agatha Christie, she betrays the cunning of an old hand … You must wait for the last-but-one chapter in the book for the last link in the chain of evidence that enabled Mr. Poirot to unravel the whole complicated plot and lay the guilt where it really belonged.

Poirot certainly suggests that he should become involved with Elizabeth in the Postscript to Curtain, noting that Elizabeth must be reassured that she is not tainted by her sister's actions and that Hastings is still not unattractive to women, but there is no further evidence either way.

With Mrs. Oliver's help, Hercule Poirot must unmask the real evil of the night.

He jokes that Mrs. Poirot and Mrs. Holmes must have collaborated when naming their sons.

Poirot arranges a meeting between them and says that Norton must not speak to anyone further of what he has seen.

At the time that Curtain was written this was almost certainly intended to be a reference to Death on the Nile, but if Hastings has seen Poirot a year before his death, then we must suppose that Poirot made a second trip there in about 1974.

Poirot decides that the investigation must delve deeper into the past in order to unearth the truth.

Poirot ’ s initial view of this case is that the appearance of complexity must conceal quite a simple murder.

Poirot explains that the Rupert was Bleibner ’ s heir and the doctor, secretly, must have been Rupert ’ s heir.

Poirot tells them their activities must stop and that the money must be returned to Lady Hoggin although he is sure that he will be able to persuade her husband not to involve the police.

Poirot points out that as the story of the shadow of an intruder leaving the study turned out to be incorrect, the plans must have been taken by Fitzroy ( who they have previously discounted ) or by Lord Alloway himself – the logical conclusion.

They call at Elizabeth Penn's shop and Poirot almost immediately accuses the elderly lady of being Mr Wood's visitor of the previous day in disguise and meaningfully tells the two women their scam must cease.

She also locked and bolted the windows to prevent it looking like a potential murderer escaped by that method, therefore indicating that the murderer was someone in the house, but as the fireplace grate was full of smoked cigarettes, the air should not have been as fresh as it was, and Poirot deduced that the windows of the room must have been open that night, otherwise the air would have smelled smoky and the tramp could not have overheard the conversation he did.

Very little mention is made in Christie's work about this part of his life, but in " The Nemean Lion " ( 1939 ) Poirot himself refers to a Belgian case of his in which " a wealthy soap manufacturer poisoned his wife in order to be free to marry his secretary ".

Once the preliminary police work has been done, Poirot reveals Shaitana's strange mention of a " collection " to the other three with whom he played bridge.

Poirot talks to Halliday's wife who tells him that her husband went to Paris on Thursday the 20 July to talk to some people connected with his work among them the notable French scientist Madame Olivier.

This was the last novel of an especially prolific phase of Christie's work on Poirot.

The murder and the solution of it are ingenious, but then, with Miss Christie, they always are, and it is pleasant to watch M. Hercule Poirot at work again.

The reviewer regretted that Poirot had lost some of his ' foibles ' and Hastings no longer featured in the plots but he ended on a high note: " Like all Mrs Christie's work, it is economically written, the clues are placed before the reader with impeccable fairness, the red herrings are deftly laid and the solution will cause many readers to kick themselves.

This adds to the tensions in the group, who try to carry on as Dr. Leidner arranges for his wife's funeral and the local police begin their work, along with Poirot.

She is not doing her most brilliant work in Poirot Loses A Client, but she has produced a much-better-than-average thriller nevertheless, and her plot has novelty, as it has sound mechanism, intriguing character types, and ingenuity.

She continued to work on television, in series like Heartbeat, Midsomer Murders ( playing a murder victim in the pilot episode of the series in 1997 and returning in 2006 as the character's identical twin sister ) and Poirot ).

There are two interwoven plots: the mystery Poirot works on from his armchair while the police work on the spot, and a Cold War spy story told in the first person narrative.

Her earliest television work was also in drama, including the British soap opera Brookside in 1985, the BBC police series Bergerac in 1988, and the episode " Peril at End House " in Series 2 of Agatha Christie's Poirot, on ITV in 1990.

In the portmanteau was a false packet that the real villain of the piece took out with a duplicate key and threw overboard – this was Mr Shaw who claims he was off work for two weeks due to bronchitis whilst these events transpired, however Poirot caught him by asking if he can smoke a cigar ( a request which Mr. Shaw should have declined as he couldn't stand smoke with his bronchitis problem ).

Poirot investigates the dig and feels more and more the forces of evil at work.

Poirot had been struck by the fact that the light switch in the kitchen supposedly didn't work when later on there seemed nothing wrong with it.

Her recent television work includes roles in Lewis, Casualty, Skins, Midsomer Murders, The Last Detective and the Poirot episode " The Mystery of the Blue Train ".