Hercule Poirot met his lifelong friend, Captain Arthur Hastings, and solved the first of his cases to be published, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles". It is clear that Hastings and Poirot are already friends when they meet in Chapter 2 of the novel, as Hastings tells Cynthia that he has not seen him for "some years". Particulars such as the date of 1916 for the case and that Hastings had met Poirot in Belgium, are given in "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case", Chapter 1. After that case, Poirot apparently came to the attention of the British secret service and undertook cases for the
Hercule Poirot series would span a quarter-century or that the classically trained Suchet would complete the entire catalogue of whodunits featuring the eccentric Belgian investigator, including 33 novels and dozens of short stories." His final appearance was in an adaptation of "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case", aired on 13 November 2013. During the time that it was filmed, Suchet expressed his sadness at his final farewell to the Poirot character whom he had loved: Poirot's death was the end of a long journey for me. I had only ever wanted to play Dame Agatha's true Poirot [...] He was as real to me