Hercule Poirot in literature Chocolate Box" but for some reason this reference was removed from the later editions. The Poirot books are still under copyright. "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" is now public domain in the US but will not become public domain in the UK until 2046 (70 years after Christie's death). Christie's grandson, Matthew Prichard, now owns the copyright to his grandmother's works. In 2014, the Christie estate authorised author Sophie Hannah to write a new Poirot book, "The Monogram Murders". "Short story collections listed as "ss"" Poirot settles down in London and opens a private detective agency. These are the short
Hercule Poirot less in evidence, frequently passing the duties of main interviewing detective to a subsidiary character. In "Cat Among the Pigeons", Poirot's entrance is so late as to be almost an afterthought. Whether this was a reflection of his age or of Christie's distaste for him, is impossible to assess. "Crooked House" (1949) and "Ordeal by Innocence" (1957), which could easily have been Poirot novels, represent a logical endpoint of the general diminution of his presence in such works. Towards the end of his career, it becomes clear that Poirot's retirement is no longer a convenient fiction. He assumes a genuinely