16
votes
Definition of "Victorian vandal"
This is a reference to a particular enthusiasm in Victorian times for "restoring" churches and other religious buildings. In some cases, this was a due to a desire to modernise them and ...
- 21k
15
votes
Accepted
Did Poirot fabricate a fingerprint in "The ABC Murders"?
Poirot lied about fingerprints being found, in order to provoke the culprit into a confession. He did not fake any physical evidence. When he says "I put that part in for you", or in the ...
- 1,514
11
votes
Accepted
Definition of "Victorian vandal"
Imagine you have an old house (or other building). It has a number of distinctive features - perhaps its windows are an unusual shape, or very large or small compared to how windows are now. Perhaps ...
- 872
8
votes
How old was Hercule Poirot?
According to the Wikipedia page on Hercule Poirot and based on quotations from Curtain, Poirot died in October 1949, thirty-three years after he first met Captain Hastings in June 1916. (He wasn't ...
- 1,700
7
votes
Accepted
Is there any merit to reading the Poirot novels in order?
There's no need to read the Poirot books in any particular order.
Agatha Christie has rewritten a few of the early Poirot short stories (see list) from the book Poirot's Early Cases (1923) and The ...
- 1,730
5
votes
Accepted
What is the meaning of "The first rocket flamed to Heaven"?
They're watching fireworks.
A few paragraphs earlier we have the sentence: "‘It’s warm,’ said Nick. ‘It’ll be nice when we’re watching the fireworks.‘"
From the Merriam-Webster Dictionary:
...
- 11.7k
3
votes
To what extent did Agatha Christie base Captain Hastings on Dr. Watson?
Whether Agatha Christie intentionally copied Watson in Hastings or not, he is an example of a necessity for a successful mystery writer: To fully engage a reader, generally one has to not just ...
- 31
2
votes
Which Agatha Christie book was this adaption with an Irish woman committing suicide based on?
As ShreevatsaR said:
The phrase you heard is Erin go Bragh, said by Irish Freedom sympathisers who kidnapped the Prime Minister.
The short story and the episode both go by the name: The Kidnapped ...
- 2,933
1
vote
Is Hercule Poirot religious?
This answer is largely based on the Movies & TV post which user1964 linked in a comment.
Yes, Poirot was a religious Catholic.
In the story Murder in Mesopotamia (Internet Archive link), he ...
- 71.1k
1
vote
How old was Hercule Poirot?
TL;DR: It is not possible to put together a consistent biography of Poirot that includes all the stories.
Chronology
Precise dates are very rare in the Poirot corpus, and there are few references to ...
- 53.5k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible