"But when I explain it to you, mon ami, isn't everything always quite simple?"

How exactly did Hercule Poirot become famous? His friend, Arthur Hastings, narrates eighteen of the cases he solved in the early years of his career, gradually building his reputation.

These are cases of all kinds, from petty thefts and robberies to kidnappings and murders, and Poirot always solves them in his preferred way: not by chasing after evidence, but by using his mind - the "little grey cells," as he calls them - to work.

Eighteen stories, eighteen mysteries that prove the diminutive Belgian with the always well-groomed mustache was right to introduce himself as the world's greatest detective...