** Poirot Investigates

* 1931, John Lane ( The Bodley Head, February 1931 ( As part of the Agatha Christie Omnibus along with The Murder on the Links and Poirot Investigates ), Hardcover ( Priced at seven shillings and sixpence, a cheaper edition at five shillings was published in October 1932 )

This is the second Christie crime book not to carry a dedication, Poirot Investigates being the first.

Wharmby had small roles in programmes such as Troy Kennedy Martin's nuclear thriller Edge of Darkness ( 1985 ), Brookside ( 1985 ), All Creatures Great and Small ( 1988 ), A Very British Coup ( 1988 ), Agatha Christie's Poirot ( 1990 ), Heartbeat ( 1994 ) and Hetty Wainthropp Investigates ( 1996 ).

Miss Agatha Christie, however, has invested the type with a new vitality in her Hercule Poirot, and in Poirot Investigates she relates some more of his adventures.

All of the stories contained in Poirot Investigates have been adapted as episodes in the ITV television series Agatha Christie's Poirot with David Suchet in the role of Poirot, Hugh Fraser as Hastings, Philip Jackson as Japp and Pauline Moran as Miss Lemon.

At first she meekly accepted Lane's strictures about what would be published by them but by the time of Poirot Investigates Christie insisted that their suggested title of The Grey Cells of Monsieur Poirot was not to her liking and that the book was to be included in the tally of six books within her contract-the Bodley Head opposed this because the stories had already been printed in The Sketch.

* Poirot Investigates at the official Agatha Christie website

fr: Poirot Investigates

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This may suggest discarded chips from the workshop, but in fact the standard here is distinctly higher than the stories in Poirot Investigates, which were the ones Christie did publish at the time.

Poirot Investigates ( 1924 )-The Chocolate Box, The Veiled Lady, The Lost Mine ( US version only ).

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.

In the short story The Chocolate Box ( 1923 ) Poirot provides Captain Arthur Hastings with an account of what he considers to be his only failure.

As a result, Suchet will have filmed adaptations of every Poirot novel, and all but one Poirot short story.

Miss Marple also appears in Greenshaw's Folly, a short story traditionally included as part of the Poirot collection The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding ( 1960 ).

In preparation for the role he says that he has read every novel and short story and compiled an extensive file on Poirot.

Suchet said that he prepared for the part by reading all the Poirot novels and every short story, and copying out every piece of description about the character.

As a result, Suchet will have filmed all the Poirot novels, and all but one short story ( The Lemesurier Inheritance ).

The book features the recurring characters of Hercule Poirot, Colonel Race, Superintendent Battle and the bumbling crime writer Ariadne Oliver, making her first appearance in a Poirot novel ( she previously had a role in the Parker Pyne short story The Case of the Discontented Soldier ).

Poirot replies that the last time was 28 years ago, probably a reference to The Chocolate Box, a short story from Poirot's Early Cases.

Hastings is today strongly associated with Poirot, partly because many of the early TV episodes " Agatha Christie's Poirot " were adaptations of the short stories, in most of which he appeared, or were stories into which he had been introduced in the course of adaptation ( e. g. Murder in the Mews ).

Hastings narrates the majority of the short stories featuring Poirot, but appears in only eight of the novels, all of which were written before 1940 ( except Curtain: Poirot's Last Case ).

Maurice Richardson in a short review in the 7 December 1941 issue of The Observer wrote: " Agatha Christie takes time off from Poirot and the haute cuisine of crime to write a light war-time spy thriller.

* In Agatha Christie's 1947 novel The Labours of Hercules from the short story " The Erymanthian Boar " detective Hercule Poirot uses a heliograph to communicate from the top of Rochers Neiges where he is trapped to the police at the mountain's base.

Maurice Richardson in a short review in the 8 June 1941 issue of The Observer said, " Best Agatha Christie since Ten Little Indians – and one can't say much more than that – Evil Under the Sun has luxury summer hotel, closed-circle setting, Poirot in white trousers.

* " The Dream ", an episode of Agatha Christie's Poirot, an adaptation of a short story by the same name

Poirot was the only short suspect at the house.

The novel's plot is based on the 1923 Poirot short story The Plymouth Express ( much later collected in book form in the US in 1951 in The Under Dog and Other Stories and in the UK in 1974 in Poirot's Early Cases ).

Category: Hercule Poirot short story collections

Peter Lord says that he has been recommended to consult Poirot by Dr. John Stillingfleet on the basis of Poirot ’ s brilliant performance in the case related in the short story, The Dream, which had been printed two years earlier in issue 566 of The Strand ( magazine ) and later printed in book form in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding in 1960 in the UK and in The Regatta Mystery in the US in 1939.

The novel is notable for featuring Poirot ’ s efficient secretary, Miss Felicity Lemon, who had previously only appeared in the Poirot short stories.