Agatha Christie’s 'Curtain' Became a Bestseller and Marked Hercule Poirot’s Final Case

Erin CrabtreeSat, April 11, 2026 at 2:11 PM UTC

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Agatha Christie brought Hercule Poirot’s story to an end in her 1975 book, Curtain: Poirot’s Last Case.

The author introduced the fictional detective to readers in her first-ever mystery novel, 1920’s The Mysterious Affair at Styles. Poirot ultimately became Christie’s longest-running character, making appearances in 33 of her novels, two plays and 51 short stories over the course of the following 55 years. His most notable books include 1926’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1934’s Murder on the Orient Express and 1937’s Death on the Nile.

At the height of Poirot’s popularity, Christie decided to write his ending. While working in an England hospital’s pharmacy during World War II, she penned Curtain as she feared for her life due to the Blitz bombings at the time. Christie placed the manuscript in a bank vault with instructions that the novel should be published after her death.

Curtain remained locked away for nearly four decades after Christie survived the war. In the meantime, she continued to write and publish new Poirot novels, with fans none the wiser that she had already secretly concocted his demise.

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Well into her 80s, Christie concluded that the time was finally right to share Poirot’s ending with readers. She published Curtain in September 1975, killing off the beloved detective. Poirot’s death was so culturally significant that he became the only fictional character to ever receive an obituary from The New York Times, with the article making the front page of the newspaper.

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Readers were just as affected by Poirot’s final case as Curtain spent 19 consecutive weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list between November 1975 and April 1976.

Amid the novel’s streak of success, Christie herself died from natural causes on Jan. 12, 1976, at age 85. Her final novel, Sleeping Murder—which she wrote at the same time as Curtain to chronicle the end of another of her iconic characters, Miss Marple—was published that October and spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the New York Times bestsellers list.

Despite Poirot’s on-page death, his character lives on in Christie’s writings and adaptations of her work. The detective has notably been portrayed in films by Austin Trevor, Tony Randall, Albert Finney, Peter Ustinov and Kenneth Branagh and on TV by David Suchet.

In recent years, the Christie estate also commissioned author Sophie Hannah to write multiple original novels starring Poirot. Instead of resurrecting the character in the present day, the stories all take place prior to his death. So far, six books have been released: 2014’s The Monogram Murders, 2016’s Closed Casket, 2018’s The Mystery of Three Quarters, 2020’s The Killings at Kingfisher Hill, 2023’s Hercule Poirot’s Silent Night and 2025’s The Last Death of the Year.

Rather than try to write “as Agatha Christie, in her voice,” Hannah told The Guardian in 2014 why she opted to have Edward Catchpool narrate the stories, explaining, “He’s a character who knows Poirot very well, as I feel I do, so I felt I could write convincingly from his point of view, and then there would be no issue with trying to write like Christie, or copy her.”

This story was originally published by Parade on Apr 11, 2026, where it first appeared in the News section. Add Parade as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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Source: “AOL Entertainment”