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 On the ITV television series, Poirot died in October 1949 from complications of a heart condition at the end of "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case" {This took place at Styles Court scene of his first English case in 1916}. In Christie's novels, he lived into the late 1960s, perhaps even until 1975 when "Curtain" was published. In both the novel and the television adaptation, he had moved his amyl nitrite pills out of his own reach, possibly because of guilt. He thereby became the murderer in "Curtain", although it was for the benefit of others. Poirot himself noted that he wanted