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 original story, Sophie Hannah. The novel was called "The Monogram Murders", and was set in the late 1920s, placing it chronologically between "The Mystery of the Blue Train" and "Peril at End House". A second Hannah-penned Poirot came out in 2016, called "Closed Casket". The first actor to portray Hercule Poirot was Charles Laughton. He appeared on the West End in 1928 in the play "Alibi" which had been adapted by Michael Morton from the novel "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". In 1932 the play was performed as "The Fatal Alibi" on Broadway. Austin Trevor debuted the role of Poirot