Hercule Poirot available to solve mysteries at an English country house. At the time of Christie's writing, it was considered patriotic to express sympathy towards the Belgians, since the invasion of their country had constituted Britain's "casus belli" for entering World War I, and British wartime propaganda emphasised the "Rape of Belgium". Poirot first appeared in "The Mysterious Affair at Styles" (published in 1920) and exited in "Curtain" (published in 1975). Following the latter, Poirot was the only fictional character to receive an obituary on the front page of "The New York Times". By 1930, Agatha Christie found Poirot "insufferable", and, by
Recurring characters in the Hercule Poirot stories detective in four of Christie's books; he was introduced in "The Man in the Brown Suit", published in 1924. He featured as Hercule Poirot's good friend in "Cards on the Table" (1936) and "Death on the Nile" (1937}. He also appears in "Sparkling Cyanide" (1945), and like his first appearance, Poirot is not a character in the novel. He is known for his patience, composure, and ability to detect facts quickly without anyone else noticing. Although rather conventional in his deductive thought processes, he has an exceptionally open mind regarding possibilities and theories, and while he is amazed by some