Arthur Hastings Arthur Hastings Captain Arthur J. M. Hastings, OBE, is a fictional character created by Agatha Christie as the companion-chronicler and best friend of the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot. He is first introduced in Christie's 1920 novel "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" and appears as a character in eight other Poirot novels and plays, in addition to being the narrator of several others. Hastings is today strongly associated with Poirot, due more to the changes in the television adaptations compared to the novels. Many of the early TV episodes of "Agatha Christie's Poirot" were adaptations of short stories, in most of
Agatha Christie (usually Hercule Poirot). This occurs in "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd", "Death on the Nile", "Dumb Witness", "Crooked House", "The Hollow", "The Mirror Crack'd from Side to Side", "Cat Among the Pigeons", "Peril at End House", "Nemesis", "Appointment with Death", "The Secret Adversary", and "Curtain". In the last of these ("Curtain"), no fewer than three culprits die during the course of the story. In "The A.B.C. Murders", the murderer has killed four innocent people and attempted to frame an unstable man for the crimes. Hercule Poirot, however, prevents this easy way out, ensuring a trial and hanging. In "And Then