Hercule Poirot, the Belgian detective with the egg-shaped head and immaculate black moustache, has a passion for order, rational tought, and an overwhelming confidence in his deductive genius. He is, afetr all, the most famous detective in the world! There is a spectacular diversity in the plots and themes of these cases. Violent murders, poisonings, kidnappings and thefts, all are solved or thwarted with Poirot's usual panache - and the characteristic application of his 'little grey cells'.