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
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