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 allowed the murderer to escape justice through suicide and then withheld the truth to spare the feelings of the murderer's relatives. In "The Augean Stables", he helped the government to cover up vast corruption. In "Murder on the Orient Express", Poirot allowed the murderers to go free after discovering that twelve different people participated in the murder. The victim had been responsible for a disgusting crime which had led to the deaths of no fewer than five people. There was no question of his guilt, but he had been acquitted in America in a miscarriage of justice. Considering it poetic