Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories
by Agatha Christie

During the course of her writing career, Dame Agatha Christie wrote 33 full-length novels featuring her iconic Belgian sleuth, Hercule Poirot, starting with The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920 and ending with Curtain in 1975. In the intervening years, she also wrote over 50 short stories that featured the detective, and which were collected in various smaller stories collections at various times. Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories collects all of those shorter works in one large omnibus collection, placing them in chronological order according to their first appearances.

If you’ve only ever sampled Poirot before, or, perhaps, only read some of the more famous full novels to feature him, this collection gives you a perfect opportunity to fill in all the gaps in his long-running storyline. If you’re mainly familiar with the televised Poirot stories, in which he was played by David Suchet in 70 episodes over the course of 24 years, you will find the original source material for most of those episodes here in this collection. I will admit, even as a Christie and Poirot fan, that this is a dense volume — there are A LOT of stories to read in this collection. This is the type of book to savor over a lengthy period of time — pulling it out whenever you are in the mood for just a little Poirot, and then putting it away again for another rainy day.

None-the-less, if you are a Christie and Poirot complete-ist, as I am, this should be an essential part of your reading collection. Put your “little grey cells” to work and start catching up on this extensive body of mystery classics!

[If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the 33 full-length Hercule Poirot novels by Agatha Christie. Check out this Hercule Poirot reading list on BookGuide.]

[ publisher’s official Hercule Poirot: The Complete Short Stories web page] | [ official Agatha Christie web site ]

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library

Special Event: Don’t miss “The Mystery of Agatha Christie”, a special 75-minute presentation at the Bennett Martin Public Library on the evening of, November 7th, 2018, 6:30-7:45 p.m. — a celebration of all things “Christie”, covering the author and her life (including her mysterious 11-day disappearance), her entire body of written work, and the stage, screen and television adaptations of her stories. But first, join fellow theater-goers in attending the play Black Coffee, not-so-coincidentally starring this very reviewer as Hercule Poirot, at the Lincoln Community Playhouse on October 19-21 and November 2-4 2018.

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