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 ).

Upon arrival at Shaitana's house on the appointed day, Poirot is joined by three other guests: mystery novelist Ariadne Oliver, Scotland Yard's Superintendent Battle, and Colonel Race of His Majesty's Secret Service.

Roberts, Meredith, Lorrimer, and Despard play in the first room, while Poirot, Oliver, Race, and Battle play in the next ; Shaitana settles himself in a chair in the first room and thinks of how wonderfully his party is going.

Despard, who has been visiting Anne and Rhoda, both of whom fancy him, is a few steps ahead of Poirot and Battle.

Poirot and Battle see Anne suddenly push her friend into the water.

Poirot gathers Oliver, Battle, Despard, Rhoda, and Roberts at his home, where he makes a surprising announcement: the true murderer of both Shaitana and Mrs. Lorrimer is not Anne, but Dr. Roberts.

Poirot expects to unmask ABC on the Doncaster race course, but ABC strikes in a cinema hall instead, killing George Earlsfield, instead of Roger Emmanuel Downes, a logical victim sitting only two seats later.

Poirot hopes to catch ABC on Doncaster race course, but he kills George Earlsfield in a cinema hall.

Meanwhile, Poirot sets a trap for Anne Meredith.

After Anne makes her gift suggestions and leaves, Poirot discovers that two pairs of the stockings are missing, confirming his suspicion that Anne is a thief, and seemingly giving weight to his suspicion that she stole from Mrs. Benson and killed her when she feared she had been discovered.

She begs Poirot to let her take the blame for the crime: she will die soon anyway, and Anne will be free to live her young life.

* In chapter 2, Anne Meredith, when introduced to Poirot, already knows of him from his having solved The A. B. C.

* In chapter 2, Anne Meredith tells Poirot that she knows Ariadne Oliver from her book The Body in the Library, which was the title of a book later written by Agatha Christie and published in 1942.

Poirot reveals in the denouement that Norman Gale is none other than Anne's new husband, and that his plans-almost certainly including the eventual murder of Anne herself-had been laid well in advance.

Her acting career started with the juvenile lead in a television series ( an adaptation of Anne Fine's Goggle Eyes, 1993, alongside Perdita ); since then she has appeared in many programmes, including the children's series The Wild House and the long-running series Midsomer Murders and Poirot.

( The omission of Rhoda and Colonel Despard is probably due to the fact that in the Agatha Christie's Poirot adaption of Cards on the Table, Rhoda dies in place of Anne Meredith and Colonel Despard falls in love with Anne instead.

The villain of the piece was Daniels who kidnapped both men in the shooting, taking to London substitutes with the " P. M .’ s " face disguised by bandages from a shooting that, in fact, had never occurred and Poirot ’ s search of the cottage hospitals proved that no one ’ s face was bandaged up that day.

By 1930, Agatha Christie found Poirot " insufferable ", and by 1960 she felt that he was a " detestable, bombastic, tiresome, ego-centric little creep ".

Christie is purposefully vague, as Poirot is thought to be elderly even in the early Poirot novels, and in An Autobiography she admitted that she already imagined him to be an old man in 1920.

At the time, of course, she had no idea she would be going on writing Poirot books for many decades to come.

Christie wrote little of Poirot ’ s childhood though in Three Act Tragedy she writes that he comes from a large family with little wealth.

Whether this was during one of Poirot ’ s numerous retirements or before she entered his employment is unknown.

In The Agatha Christie Hour, she was portrayed by British actress Angela Easterling, while in Agatha Christie's Poirot, she was portrayed by Pauline Moran.

A marked difference from the text exists in Moran's portrayal, where she is shown to be an attractive, fashionable and emotional woman showing an occassional soft corner for Poirot.

When Christie's daughter, Rosalind Hicks, observed Ustinov during a rehearsal, she said, " That's not Poirot!

Alongside Hercule Poirot, she is one of the most loved and famous of Christie's characters and has been portrayed numerous times on screen.

The other Rutherford films ( all directed by George Pollock ) were Murder at the Gallop ( 1963 ), based on the 1953 Hercule Poirot novel After the Funeral ( In this film, she is identified as Miss JTV Marple, though there was no indication as to what the extra initials might stand for ); Murder Most Foul ( 1964 ), based on the 1952 Poirot novel Mrs McGinty's Dead ; and Murder Ahoy!

This followed Christie's trend of adapting Poirot novels as plays, but without Poirot as a detective, as she did not feel that any actor could portray him successfully.

Mrs. Oliver repeats to Poirot Joyce's comment that she had once witnessed a murder ; Mrs. Oliver now wonders if Joyce might have been telling the truth, which might provide someone with a motive for killing her.

Hercule Poirot thinks Janet White's murder is the most probable candidate for the murder Joyce witnessed, because strangulation might not appear at first sight to be murder.

Poirot hypothesises that Rowena Drake might have met a similar fate to the other women as Garfield would no longer have any use for her.

Mr. Entwhistle and Hercule Poirot suspect her punishment might be served in Broadmoor, but have no doubt she had plotted and carried out the cold blooded murder in full possession of her faculties — this ladylike murderer.

Poirot investigates and finds out that the murder and the jewel theft might not be connected, as the famous jewel thief The Marquis is connected to the crime.

Poirot is absent physically, but his influence guides the sensitive inspector past the whiles of the carefully planted house party, and with its tortuous double bluff this might well have been a Poirot case.

Poirot points out that a woman of Lady Millicent's class might dress shoddily but would never wear such low-quality shoes.

Notably, during this time his physical characteristics also change dramatically, and by the time Arthur Hastings meets Poirot again in Curtain, he looks very different from his previous appearances, having become thin with age and with obviously dyed hair.

He first met Poirot in Belgium, 1904, during the Abercrombie Forgery and later that year they joined forces again to hunt down a criminal known as Baron Altara.

The Poirot books take readers through the whole of his life in England, from the first book ( The Mysterious Affair at Styles ), where he is a refugee staying at Styles, to the last Poirot book ( Curtain ), where he visits Styles once again before his death.

He appeared again as Poirot in three made-for-television movies: Thirteen at Dinner ( 1985 ), Dead Man's Folly ( 1986 ), and Murder in Three Acts ( 1986 ).

The Times Literary Supplement of November 14, 1936 stated favourably in its review by Caldwell Harpur that, " Poirot scores again, scores in two senses, for this appears to be the authoress's twentieth novel.

Poirot then explains to Hastings how Halliday was kidnapped he was walking away when a lady caught up with him and told him Madame Olivier wanted to talk to him again.

In Triangle at Rhodes, Poirot again witnesses an apparent liaison between two married people.

But Poirot is aware that he alone must work quickly before the murderer strikes again, even if it means putting his life on the line ...

Meeting Henry again, Poirot explains: Anthony left a large fortune to his dead, but estranged, brother.

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.

Poirot as a man is quite as delightful as ever, and Poirot as a detective not only perplexes the pleasant and not too intelligent hospital nurse, whose duty it is to tell the story, but, again as usual, the intelligent reader as well.

David Suchet once again reprised his role as Poirot and it also starred Harriet Walter as Miss Bulstrode, Natasha Little as Ann Shapland, Claire Skinner as Miss Rich, Elizabeth Berrington as Miss Springer, Katie Leung as Hsui Tai Wan, Raji James as Prince Ali Yusuf, and Adam Croasdell as Adam Goodman.

* In Chapter 14, Poirot refers again to one of his favourite cases, the one related in The Nemean Lion, the first story of The Labours of Hercules.

In fact, Poirot has hidden her from danger, and she is not seen again for much of the novel.

Poirot wants to know the full details of the shooting that took place earlier and is told it occurred on the way back from Windsor Castle when, accompanied again by Daniels and the chauffeur, Murphy, the car took a side road and was surrounded by masked men.

Talking to the manager and then to Schwartz again, Poirot learns that the beautiful woman is a Madame Grandier, who comes each year on the anniversary of her husband's death in the area, and that the distinguished-looking man is Dr Lutz, a Jewish refugee from the Nazis in Vienna.

Sometime during the latter days of the First World War, having recently met up again at Styles, Poirot and Hastings have dined at the Carlton when they meet Captain Vincent Lemesurier, who Hastings knew in France.

Poirot points out to Hastings again the absurdity of the despatch case being forced but left in the suitcase.