The Double Clue
An antique collector loses some of his pieces at a tea party. A cigarette lighter holds the key to the culprit. From Poirot’s Early Cases and Double Sin and Other Stories.
More about this story
Only four people had the opportunity to steal Marcus Hardman’s medieval jewels and when Poirot examines the scene of the crime he finds two clues which will lead to the culprit. This story is one of Poirot’s few encounters with Countess Vera Rossakoff, his only acknowledged love interest.
It was first published as a book in the 1961 US collection Double Sin and Other Stories, and was published in the UK in the collection Poirot’s Early Cases in 1974.
This story was adapted for the TV series Agatha Christie’s Poirot in 1991 and starred David Suchet in the title role. He was accompanied by Captain Hastings (Hugh Fraser), Chief Inspector Japp (Philip Jackson) and Miss Felicity Lemon (Pauline Moran) in many of the cases, regardless of whether or not they appeared in the original text.