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 Adventure of the Clapham Cook (short story) The Adventure of the Clapham Cook (short story) "The Adventure of the Clapham Cook" is a short story by crime fiction writer Agatha Christie. It features the writer's famous detective Hercule Poirot and his companion Captain Arthur Hastings. The story was first published in 1924 in the British weekly journal, "The Sketch", as part of the series, "The Grey Cells of M. Poirot II". It also was featured in a collection of short stories entitled "The Second Omnibus of Crime" by author Dorothy L. Sayers first published in 1932. It first appeared in book form in the U.S. in 1951