Christie s quirky, vain and fastidious Belgian detective Hercule Poirot appeared in 33 novels, one play and51 short stories, of which this collection offers the 14 earliest, all published in The Sketch magazine in 1923. Poirot first appeared as a character in Christie s firstnovel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles. His popularity led Christie to write these short mysteries, which have thefeel of Sherlock Holmes stories, but with the deft turns of plot that made Christie a favorite of mystery fans.,
