The world's greatest detective, Hercule Poirot, is back on our screens this week in A Haunting in Venice. Devised by the 'Queen of Crime' Agatha Christie and re-imagined by director/star Kenneth Branagh, Belgian sleuth Poirot never met a case he couldn't solve – until now.
A Haunting in Venice is a loose adaptation of Christie's Hallowe'en Story and sends Poirot to the titular Italian city, a land of shadowy alleys and atmospheric canals. When he arrives Poirot becomes embroiled in a seance that's initiated by a bereaved woman who has lost her daughter. The event appears to conjure untold evil from beyond the grave and before long someone is dead – but is the real culprit hiding in plain sight?
As with his earlier Poirot movies, an impressively mustachioed Branagh leads an all-star cast. This time, the ensemble includes the likes of Michelle Yeoh, Tina Fey, Jamie Dornan and Kelly Reilly – so who is the suspect this time?
Ahead of the movie’s release, you may need to brush up on Poirot’s big-screen journey so far, which already encompasses two seemingly impossible cases. Keep on reading to find out more.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Murder on the Orient Express (2017)
- We're introduced to Hercule Poirot as he solves a case in Jerusalem while visiting the Wailing Wall
- Seeking rest in Istanbul, he's soon lured back to London to solve another case
- He boards the Orient Express when he becomes involved in the death of businessman Edward Ratchett, who has been mysteriously stabbed a dozen times
- While the train is snowbound, Poirot cross-examines the litany of suspects
- Young Daisy Armstrong was kidnapped and held for ransom, after which she was tragically murdered
- Poirot deduces Ratchett's (aka John Cassetti) culpability in Daisy's death and the fact that every individual on the train was connected to the Armstrong family
- Every individual on the train helped devise Cassetti's death and the group was centrally led by the widowed Caroline Hubbard, in reality Daisy's grandmother Linda Arden
- Given the tragic nature of Daisy's death, Poirot is atypically incapable of weighing the scales of justice and punishment
- He then vows to live with the consequences of the group's involvement in Cassetti's death
- Poirot is then informed of a mysterious incident aboard a paddle steamer on the Nile river in Eygpt
Death on the Nile (2022)
- In World War I, a young Hercule Poirot devises a strategy to advance his Belgian infantry company
- Injured in battle, Poirot grows his signature mustache to hide his scars
- Two decades later in 1937, Poirot finds himself invited to the Egyptian wedding of Simon Doyle and Linnet Ridgeway
- Aboard the cruise ship the S.S. Karnak, Linnet is found dead in her cabin and Poirot must sift through the suspects
- Poirot later confides that after renounced romance after he lost his wife Katherine in an explosion
- It's ultimately revealed that Simon killed Linnet, working with his ex-fiancee Jackie de Bellefort to inherit Linnet's fortune
- Upon solving the case, Poirot grapples with his feelings toward nightclub singer Salome, eventually slipping into her club, newly clean-shaven, and quietly watching her perform from the back of the audience
Have you got the old grey cells ready to crack Poirot's next case? Click the link below to book your tickets for A Haunting in Venice, opening on September 15th
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