Agatha Christie

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Hastings records the sudden death by poisoning of Emily Inglethorp at Styles and recounts Hercule Poirot’s systematic inquiry into conflicting alibis, forged clues and a destroyed will. Poirot demonstrates that Alfred Inglethorp, assisted by Evelyn Howard, precipitated strychnine into the victim’s medicine and manufactured evidence to frame John Cavendish, and the hidden letter fragments provide the conclusive proof.

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Series of short detective cases narrated by Captain Hastings, centred on Hercule Poirot.
Each story presents thefts, murders or frauds unraveled by Poirot’s methodical deductions, psychological insight and attention to small details.
Recurring motifs include imposture, staged incidents, insurance/inheritance schemes and the primacy of “method.”

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Flossie Halliday (Mrs. Rupert Carrington) is found chloroformed, stabbed and robbed on the Plymouth Express; her father engages Poirot.
Poirot reconstructs the timing, the maid’s odd behaviour, a love-letter and pawnbroker leads and concludes the murder was staged so the maid could impersonate the victim while an accomplice fenced the jewels.
He exposes Jane Mason as Gracie Kidd by finding duplicate clothes and facilitates the arrest of Red Narky.

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Captain Hastings investigates the murder of Harrington Pace at Hunter’s Lodge after the Hon. Roger Havering summons Poirot; the scene yields a missing revolver and a vanished “housekeeper.” Poirot concludes Mrs. Havering, a former actress, disguised herself as the housekeeper to provide an alibi while her husband planted a false clue in Ealing, securing the uncle’s fortune. Lacking prosecutable evidence, they evade conviction but later die in an air‑crash.

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Violet Marsh asks Poirot to locate a second will after her rich uncle’s testament gives her only a year at Crabtree Manor to “prove her wits.” Poirot’s inquiry—interviews, a hidden fireplace cavity and a burned fragment—leads him to the desk key’s envelope, whose invisible-ink writing is revealed by heat. The revealed document, dated later, bequeaths the estate to Violet, so her appeal to an expert secures her inheritance.

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Poirot reveals that the murder of Madame Kettering was a premeditated plot by Richard Knighton (alias the Marquis) and his accomplice Ada Mason: they killed her on the train, disguised and planted the body to create an alibi, stole the rubies and arranged their delivery to Papopolous.
Knighton's assumed identity and feigned limp are exposed, Derek Kettering is released, Van Aldin expresses gratitude, and Poirot later consoles Lenox while reflecting on Katherine's reticence and the metaphor of life as a train.

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Hastings returns to England and, with Poirot, uncovers a shadowy international cabal—the "Big Four"—whose mastermind is the Chinaman Li Chang Yen.
A string of murders, abductions and audacious disguises point to an American financier, a brilliant French scientist and a protean English "Destroyer" who strike worldwide.
Poirot feigns death, lures them to their Dolomite stronghold and, in a final confrontation, exposes and overthrows the conspiracy.

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Hercule Poirot is called to the Villa Geneviève where Paul Renauld is found stabbed and buried in an apparently staged, bewildering crime involving a love-letter from “Bella,” a stolen aeroplane dagger and a second corpse.
By methodical deduction Poirot exposes a convoluted scheme—Renauld (formerly Georges Conneau) had planned to fake his death using a dead tramp, but Marthe Daubreuil, scheming to secure the fortune and Jack’s hand, actually killed him; Bella (Cinderella/Dulcie) stole the dagger to protect her sister and later confessed to save Jack, who is ultimately cleared.
The case ends with Marthe dead, Bella spared and loved by Hastings, Jack reconciled with his mother and departing for South America, and Poirot triumphant.