Hercule Poirot Books In Order

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Publication Order of Hercule Poirot Books

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Hercule Poirot is one of the well known fictional characters created by the highly successful English author named Agatha Christie. He is in fact the most famous character among all the others created by the author. Poirot is introduced by author Christie as a Belgian detective, who depends more on clues and logic and prefers the conventional ways to solve the mysteries.

The character has made appearances in more than 30 books and as many as 50 short stores overs the years since he was first introduced in the year 1920. Author Christie featured Hercule Poirot for the last time in a book published in the year 1975. The character has also been seen in a few stage plays, movies, as well as a television series.

It has been portrayed by some of the popular actors of that time, including Albert Finney, Ian Holm, Alfred Molina, John Moffat, Peter Ustinov, David Suchet, Austin Trevor, Orson Welles, and Tony Randall. It is believed that the name of Hercule Poirot was adopted from a couple of other fictional detectives named Hercule Popeau and Monsieur Poiret.

Popeau was created by the author Marie Belloc Lowndes while Monsieur was developed by Frank Howell Evans. Monsieur was described as a Belgian police officer living a retired life in London. Other than these influences, a rather obvious influence for the initial stories in the Hercule Poirot series can be considered to be that of the author Arthur Conan Doyle.

Author Christie has stated in one of her interviews that she was still trying to write her books in the tradition of Sherlock Homes. Even Conon Doyle has acknowledged that his detective stories were based similar to the fictional character Auguste Dupin. Both these characters show a lot of resemblance in relying on their own thinking instead of others’ sayings.

On several occasions, Hercule Poirot also resembles the fictional detective created by A.E.W. Mason named Inspector Hanaud. This character was first seen in a novel around 10 years before the introduction of Hercule Poirot. But, unlike all the other characters, Christie’s Poirot was an outcome of the early development of the popular character in the first book written by the author.

Author Christie began writing the first Poirot book in the year 1916 and was finally able to publish it in 1920. The Belgian nationality was an interesting addition to Poirot’s character because at that time Belgium was occupied by Germany. This also proved to be an acceptable explanation as to why a skilled detective like him remained out of work and had to solve mysteries at a country house in England.

At the time when author Christie was writing the Poirot novels, showing sympathy for the Belgians was regarded as patriotic. The first novel to depict the Poirot’s character was The Mysterious Affair at Styles, which was published in the year 1920.

Poirot was last seen in the novel titled Curtain, that was released in the year 1975. After this, the character became the only fictional detective to obtain an obituary on The New York Times’ front page. By the year 1930, author Christie thought of Poirot as an insufferable person, and by the time the series entered the 1960s, she began feeling that he was a bombastic, egocentric, detestable, tiresome creep.

However, the public still loved him. This forced author Christie not to kill off the character as she believed that she must continue producing what the public expects from her. Hercule Poirot first serves as a policeman in Brussels and then goes on to become a private detective.

Before his retirement, he solves a number of important cases that increase his popularity even more. The death of Hercule Poirot occurs in the year 1949 due to a complicated heart condition. One of the initial books written by author Agatha Christie in the Hercule Poirot series is titled as ‘The Murder on the Links’. This book was released in the year 1923 by the Berkley publishers.

Author Christie has set the story of this book in France. The main characters shown in the book include Hercule Poirot and Arthur Hastings. As the book begins, it is depicted that a French millionaire is found dead on a golf course. He was stabbed in the back.

Following the discovery of the dead body and the urgent need for help, Hercule Poirot is asked to travel to France. The millionaire had already asked Poirot to come to France as he felt that someone was trying to kill him. Now, Poirot arrives, but it is already too late.

He reaches the crime scene and finds that the millionaire was stabbed brutally and his body was lying in the golf course’s shallow grave with the face pointing downwards. The initial investigation reveals that the man was wearing the overcoat of his son.

Also, there was a love letter in one of the pockets of the overcoat written with passion for someone. Before Poirot can take any action, he comes to know about the discovery of another dead body, murder in a similar way as the French millionaire.

It was clear that the two murders were connected and the killer was still roaming freely in the town. Poirot knows that he should find a link to the murders as soon as possible in order to stop any more killings and catch the killer. Another initial novel written in the series by author Christie is titled as ‘Poirot Investigates’.

This novel was released in the year 2001 by the Harper publishers, after being originally published in the year 1924. Once again, Poirot and Hastings are depicted as the central characters of the plot, which is set in England, United Kingdom.

The story depicted in this book shows that Hercule Poirot gets involved in the investigation of a number of cases that seemed to be linked to one another. At first, he is asked to investigate the mysterious case of a film star and his diamond.

While Poirot is still trying to get to the roots of this case, he is handed another case to investigate. This time, it is a suicide case which many believe is a murder. The other cases that come to Poirot at the same time include the mystery of an absurdly cheap flat, a bond robbery of million dollars, as well as the case of a suspicious death in the locked room.

Also, he gets loaded with other important ones which include the curse of the tomb of a Pharoah, a robbery in the sea, a Prime Minister’s abduction, a missing banker, a dying man’s phone call. And finally, the mystery surrounding a missing will.

Hercule Poirot thinks that there must be a specific reason as to why all these cases came to him at once. Subsequently, he tries to establish the links between all of them. Banking on his brilliant deductive ability, he knows that he will be able to solve all the cases very soon.

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