: " By the step leading up into the sleeping-car stood a young Belgian lieutenant, resplendent in uniform, conversing with a small man ( Hercule Poirot ) muffled up to the ears of whom nothing was visible but a pink-tipped nose and the two points of an upward-curled moustache.

Poirot points out that in the third rubber of bridge on the night of Shaitana's murder, a grand slam occurred.

Poirot points out that the footprints in the snow look like Lee-Wortley's and that in the dead girl's hand is the glass " ruby " from the pudding.

Ascanio is quickly arrested but Poirot speaks of three points of interest: the coffee was very black, the side dish and dessert were relatively untouched, and the curtains were not drawn.

Poirot points out that Nita's family called her ' Bianca '.

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.

Hastings is dubious of this deduction but Poirot points out that the man was rumoured to be involved in share scandals years before, although he was later exonerated, but suppose the rumours were true and he was being blackmailed, in all probability by Mrs Conroy, a foreign agent?

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

In chapter 21 of The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, for example, Poirot talks about a mentally disabled nephew: this proves to be a ruse so that he can find out about homes for the mentally unfit, and in Dumb Witness, Poirot tells of an elderly invalid mother as a pretence to investigate the local nurses.

Again, Poirot is not reliable as a narrator of his personal history and there is no evidence that Christie sketched it out in any depth.

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.

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.

A review in the Daily Mirror of July 20, 1935 concluded, " We leave Poirot to figure it all out.

Poirot clears Cavendish by proving it was, after all, Alfred Inglethorp who committed the crime, assisted by Evelyn Howard, who turns out to be his kissing cousin, not his enemy.

Once acquitted, due to double jeopardy, he could not be tried for the crime a second time should any genuine evidence against him be subsequently discovered, hence prompting Poirot to keep him out of prison when he realized that Alfred wanted to be arrested.

M. Poirot, the hero of The Mysterious Affair at Stiles and other brilliant pieces of detective deduction, comes out of his temporary retirement like a giant refreshed, to undertake the investigation of a peculiarly brutal and mysterious murder.

Despite a flimsy alibi, Poirot reasons out that Franz would not have the required brains to pass off her murder as a serial killing.

In Chapter 3, Poirot lays out the plot of what he considers a perfect crime, a crime so challenging that ' even he ' would find it hard to solve.

Meanwhile, a mathematics teacher named Elizabeth Whittaker, who was also present at the party, gives Hercule Poirot an important piece of evidence when she reveals that while the party-goers were playing Snapdragon, Elizabeth went out to hall and saw Rowena Drake coming out of the lavatory on the first floor landing.

The case is also recollected by Poirot in Chapter 3, when Poirot recalls Mrs. Oliver getting out of a car and “ a bag of apples breaking ”.

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.

The note came from Hoppaton so Poirot, Hastings and Ingles go to Hoppaton and find out that the man who wrote the note, a Mr. Jonathan Whalley has been murdered.

After the proceedings in the flat, Poirot and Hastings return home and Poirot takes out a second white bishop.

But it was an act ; the lights went out and Poirot and Hastings are knocked unconscious and dragged away.

She published thirteen Poirot novels between 1935 and 1942 out of a total of eighteen novels in that period.

( As she had described the theft of the valerian in the future tense Poirot realised Angela had never carried out the act ; she had completely forgotten she had stolen the valerian on the morning of that fateful day ).

In 1960, Christie adapted the book into a play, Go Back For Murder, but edited Poirot out of the story.

Poirot takes Hastings over the evidence, pointing out that his belief that he saw Norton that night relies on loose evidence: the dressing-gown, the hair, the limp.

So much had he become the rage that every rich woman who had mislaid a bracelet or lost a pet kitten rushed to secure the services of the great Hercule Poirot.

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

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.

It is possible that Hastings himself also takes a second wife: Elizabeth Litchfield, the younger sister of a woman who was manipulated into killing her abusive father by the killer that Poirot was tracking.

This is the first of the Poirot novels in which lesbianism ( between a woman and her companion ) is discussed as a possible motive.

Poirot goes to the villa and asks to speak to the woman who just came.

A quiet holiday at a secluded hotel in Devon is all that Hercule Poirot wants, but amongst his fellow guests is a beautiful and vain woman who, seemingly oblivious to her own husband, revels in the attention of another woman's husband.

She ’ s the sort of woman, I think, that men would get tired of very easily .” In Evil under the Sun, Poirot says of Arlena Marshall “ She was the type of woman whom men care for easily and of whom they easily tire .”

Now he puts together several stray clues: Marlene had said that her grandfather had seen someone burying a woman in the woods ; Marlene was the type to blackmail, and had in fact received small sums of money prior to her murder ; Merdell had commented significantly to Poirot that there would " always be Folliats at Nasse House ".

In the denouement of the novel Poirot is able to unmask several characters: Pilar is an imposter who took Pilar's identity when the other woman died when the taxi they were both in was bombed.

Poirot, disillusioned by the “ senseless cruel brutality ” of modern crime, pays no attention to the sad case of Mrs McGinty, an old woman apparently struck dead by her lodger for thirty pounds that she kept under a floorboard.

Poirot turns over the gems to the enigmatic “ Mr. Robinson ” who, in turn, delivers them to the English woman who has been secretly married to Prince Ali Yusuf.

When a young woman visits Hercule Poirot to seek his help regarding a murder that she believes herself to have committed, she is appalled by his age and leaves with her story untold.

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.

In front of the startled woman, Poirot begins to scrub the picture with turpentine whilst telling her that Winnie never made the trip across to France.

Poirot receives a visit from a Mrs Pengelley, a middle-aged woman who is afraid that she is being poisoned by her husband, a dentist.

Poirot interviews Mrs Pengelley's doctor, who at first denies that anything could be wrong but is then astounded to hear that the dead woman came to London to consult the detective.

The woman is later identified as Flossie Halliday, latterly the Honourable Mrs Rupert Carrington, the daughter of an Australian steel magnate who asks Poirot to take the case on.

Poirot knows of the woman and saw sight of her once in Paris.

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.

Poirot receives a strange letter for assistance from an elderly woman, Miss Amelia Barrowby, who lives at Rosebank in Charman's Green.