| Arthur Hastings | |
|---|---|
 | |
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Real Name |
Arthur Hastings |
|
First Appearance |
The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920) |
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Original Publisher |
John Lane |
|
Created by |
Agatha Christie |
Origin[]
Captain Arthur J. M. Hastings, OBE, is the companion-chronicler and best friend of the Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot which is a similar role that Dr. Watson plays to Sherlock Holmes.
During the First World War, Arthur Hastings is on sick leave from the Western Front and is invited to stay at Styles Court in Essex by his old friend John Cavendish.
On the morning of 18 July, the Styles household wakes to the discovery that Emily Inglethorp, the elderly and wealthy owner, has died. She had been poisoned with strychnine. Hastings ventures out to the nearby village of Styles St Mary to enlist help from his friend Hercule Poirot. Emily's household includes her husband, Alfred Inglethorp — a younger man she recently married; her stepsons (from her first husband's previous marriage) John and Lawrence Cavendish; John's wife Mary Cavendish; Cynthia Murdoch, the daughter of a deceased friend of the family; and Evelyn Howard, Emily's companion.
Poirot learns that, on Emily's death, John is to inherit the manor property, in accordance with his father's will. However, her money will be distributed according to her own will, which she changes at least once a year. Her most recent will favors Alfred, who will now inherit her fortune.
Poirot's investigations exonerate John of the crime. He establishes that the murder was committed by Alfred Inglethorp, with aid from his cousin Evelyn Howard. The pair pretended to be enemies but were romantically involved. They added bromide, obtained from her sleeping powder, to Emily's regular evening medicine. This caused the low level of strychnine in the medicine to precipitate to the bottom of the bottle, making the final dose lethal. The pair then left false evidence that would incriminate Alfred, which they knew would be refuted at his trial. Once acquitted, he could not be tried for the crime again if genuine evidence against him was found, under the law of double jeopardy. The pair framed John as part of their plan. Evelyn forged his handwriting, and the evidence against him was fabricated.
Poirot explains that he prevented Japp from arresting Alfred because Poirot could see that Alfred wanted to be arrested. Emily's distress on the afternoon of the murder was because she had found a letter in Alfred's desk while searching for stamps. Emily's document case was forced open by Alfred when he realized she had the letter. He then hid the letter elsewhere in the room to avoid being found with it. Thanks to a chance remark by Hastings, Poirot finds the letter in Emily's room. It details Alfred's intentions for Evelyn.
Hastings has a soft spot for auburn-haired women. Back in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Hastings was charmed with auburn-haired Cynthia Murdoch and proposed to her. This would become a running gag in the series, with Poirot often teasing Hastings. Whenever Hastings suggests the innocence of a young, beautiful, female murder suspect, Poirot slyly asks "Does she have auburn hair?" This pronounced weakness for pretty women with auburn hair gets Hastings and Poirot into trouble more than once such as in The Big Four, while posing as secretary for millionaire Abe Ryland, Hastings trusts false information from a woman with auburn hair.
Despite his preference for auburn hair and his Victorian ideas about not marrying outside one's class, he eventually falls in love with a dark-haired music-hall actress, singer and acrobat Dulcie Duveen, the self-styled 'Cinderella'. They meet in the story The Murder on the Links, the second full-length Poirot novel. Poirot plays a rather significant part in uniting the couple.
Public Domain Appearances[]
- The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)
- The Murder on the Links (1923)
- Poirot Investigates (1924)
- The Big Four (1927)
Notes[]
- Note the only Hercule Poirot stories published before 1929 are public domain in the United States as of January 1, 2024.
- Hastings narrates the majority of the short stories featuring Poirot, but appears in only eight of the novels, seven of which were written before 1940