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
Hercule Poirot original story, Sophie Hannah. The novel was called "The Monogram Murders", and was set in the late 1920s, placing it chronologically between "The Mystery of the Blue Train" and "Peril at End House". A second Hannah-penned Poirot came out in 2016, called "Closed Casket". The first actor to portray Hercule Poirot was Charles Laughton. He appeared on the West End in 1928 in the play "Alibi" which had been adapted by Michael Morton from the novel "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd". In 1932 the play was performed as "The Fatal Alibi" on Broadway. Austin Trevor debuted the role of Poirot