Arthur Hastings of the short stories featuring Poirot, but appears in only eight of the novels, seven of which were written before 1940: Hastings is also the narrator of all stories in "Poirot Investigates" (1924), a collection of short stories. Hastings is also present in Christie's play "Black Coffee" (1930) and its novelisation alongside Poirot. 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
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