Do we like them?

Do we like Hercule Poirot?

A character from The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920)

Our score: 9 out of 10. Yes, we'd back him. He's vain and fussy, but he's brilliant, fair and committed to justice. He stands up for the wronged and has a conscience about it.

Poirot is a Belgian detective created by Agatha Christie. Britannica calls him a fictional Belgian detective who appears in 33 novels, more than 50 short stories and several plays. He first appears in The Mysterious Affair at Styles in 1920. He is a former Brussels police officer who came to England as a refugee in the First World War. He then became a private detective, and his fame grew quickly.

He is short, fussy, proud of his moustache and sure of his own genius. He prefers order and method and the 'little grey cells' to running around with a magnifying glass. He is also warm underneath. He is loyal to his friends, courteous to everyone and gentle with the frightened. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, shaped by his Catholic upbringing, and he cannot let a killer walk free.

His flaws keep him fun. He can be smug, theatrical and a bit of a snob about food, tidiness and the English. Christie herself grew tired of him. He is still the most reliable detective on the shelf, with a moral centre and plenty of charm, so he scores a 9.