Hercule Poirot in literature

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This page details the books featuring the fictional character Hercule Poirot, created by Agatha Christie.

Contents

The Poirot books are still under copyright in the United Kingdom. The Mysterious Affair at Styles , The Murder on the Links and Poirot Investigates are now public domain in the US but will not become public domain in the UK until 2046 (70 years after Christie's death). Christie's grandson, Mathew Prichard, now owns the copyright to his grandmother's works.

In 2013, the Christie estate authorised author Sophie Hannah to write a new Poirot book, [1] The Monogram Murders (2014). She later also wrote Closed Casket (2016), The Mystery of Three Quarters (2018), The Killings at Kingfisher Hill (2020) and Hercule Poirot's Silent Night (2023). [2] The Christie Estate refers to these as the 'Poirot Continuation Novels'. [3]

Hercule Poirot Series in publication order

Short story collections listed as "ss"

  1. The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
  2. The Murder on the Links (1923)
  3. Poirot Investigates (1924, ss)
  4. The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926)
  5. The Big Four (1927)
  6. The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928)
  7. Black Coffee (1930 play) (A novelization by Charles Osborne was published in 1998.)
  8. Peril at End House (1932)
  9. Lord Edgware Dies (1933) also published as Thirteen at Dinner
  10. Murder on the Orient Express (1934) also published as Murder in the Calais Coach
  11. Three Act Tragedy (1935) also published as Murder in Three Acts
  12. Death in the Clouds (1935) also published as Death in the Air
  13. The A.B.C. Murders (1936) also published as The Alphabet Murders
  14. Murder in Mesopotamia (1936)
  15. Cards on the Table (1936)
  16. Murder in the Mews (1937, ss) also published as Dead Man's Mirror
  17. Dumb Witness (1937) also published as Poirot Loses a Client
  18. Death on the Nile (1937) also published as Murder on the Nile and as Hidden Horizon
  19. Appointment with Death (1938)
  20. Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1938) also published as Murder for Christmas and as A Holiday for Murder
  21. Sad Cypress (1940)
  22. One, Two, Buckle My Shoe (1940) also published as An Overdose of Death and as The Patriotic Murders
  23. Evil Under the Sun (1941)
  24. Five Little Pigs (1942) also published as Murder in Retrospect
  25. The Hollow (1946) also published as Murder after Hours
  26. The Labours of Hercules (1947, ss)
  27. Taken at the Flood (1948) also published as There Is a Tide
  28. The Under Dog and Other Stories (1951, ss)
  29. Mrs McGinty's Dead (1952) also published as Blood Will Tell
  30. After the Funeral (1953) also published as Funerals are Fatal
  31. Hickory Dickory Dock (1955) also published as Hickory Dickory Death
  32. Dead Man's Folly (1956)
  33. Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)
  34. The Clocks (1963)
  35. Third Girl (1966)
  36. Hallowe'en Party (1969)
  37. Elephants Can Remember (1972)
  38. Poirot's Early Cases (1974, ss)
  39. Curtain (written about 1940, published 1975) also published as Curtain: Poirot's Last Case

Stories featuring Hercule Poirot also appear in the collections The Regatta Mystery and Other Stories (1939), The Witness for the Prosecution and Other Stories (1948), Three Blind Mice and Other Stories (1950), The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding (1960), Double Sin and Other Stories (1961), Problem at Pollensa Bay and Other Stories (1991), The Harlequin Tea Set (1997) and While the Light Lasts and Other Stories (1997).

Continuations not by Christie

Books and short stories in chronological order

Poirot's police years

Career as a private detective and retirement

Shortly after Poirot flees to England (1916–1919)

The Twenties (1920–1929)

Poirot settles down in London and opens a private detective agency. These are the short story years (26 short stories and only 4 novels).

The Thirties (1930–1939) and World War II

Christie increased her novel production during this time (16 novels, 24 total short stories and 1 theatre play). Twelve short stories form The Labours of Hercules. The other short stories listed here take place in this period but were published before and after the publication of Hercules. The theatre play is named Black Coffee and was written by Agatha Christie, who stated a frustration with other stage adaptations of her Poirot mysteries. In 1998, author Charles Osborne adapted the play into a novel.

Post World War II

In chronological order, only the following are set following World War II

Expanded/Adapted stories

Some Poirot adventures were later expanded into other stories or re-written. They are:

Drama

Other stories were adapted by Christie into plays, sometimes removing Poirot:

In addition, the 1930 play Black Coffee was novelized by Charles Osborne in 1998.

References

  1. ↑ Brown, Mark (4 September 2013). "Hercule Poirot gets new lease of life, 38 years after being killed off". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  2. ↑ Neve Gordon-Farleigh; Chris Mann. "Cambridge author writes new Hercule Poirot novel". BBC Radio Cambridgeshire. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  3. ↑ AgathaChristie.com. "Poirot Continuation Novels" . Retrieved 28 May 2025.
  4. ↑ Hercule Poirot and the Greenshore Folly on Amazon
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