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
Recurring characters in the Hercule Poirot stories is called "Johnny". The 2002 ITV adaptation of "Sparkling Cyanide" featured Oliver Ford Davies as "Colonel Geoffrey Reece". Countess Vera Rossakoff is the only woman with whom Hercule Poirot has ever admitted to being in love. The countess' true name is a mystery. She appears in only one novel, "The Big Four", and two short stories, "The Double Clue" and "The Capture of Cerberus" ("The Labours of Hercules" series). Recurring characters in the Hercule Poirot stories This page details the other fictional characters created by Agatha Christie in her stories about the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. Hastings first meets Poirot