Agatha Christie her service in September 1918. After the war, Agatha and Archie Christie settled in a flat at 5 Northwick Terrace in St. John's Wood, northwest London. Christie had long been a fan of detective novels, having enjoyed Wilkie Collins's "The Woman in White" and "The Moonstone", as well as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's early Sherlock Holmes stories. She wrote her own detective novel, "The Mysterious Affair at Styles", featuring Hercule Poirot, a former Belgian police officer noted for his twirly large "magnificent moustaches" and egg-shaped head. Poirot had taken refuge in Britain after Germany invaded Belgium. Christie's inspiration for the
The Monogram Murders she wanted to avoid reusing any of Christie's supporting cast. "The Monogram Murders" is the first original novel including Hercule Poirot to be commissioned by the Christie estate, more than thirty-eight years after her death in 1976. It is the thirty-fourth novel to feature the character. Agatha Christie wrote her last Poirot novel, "Elephants Can Remember", in 1972. The last featuring Poirot and written by Christie was "Curtain: Poirot's Last Case", published 1975 but written in the 1940s to be a swansong. The Christie estate authorised Charles Osborne to novelise several of her plays. The Monogram Murders The Monogram Murders