Curtain characters

Appears from the start

Poirot's oldest friend, now a widower in late middle age, returning to the house where the two of them first worked together many years before. He narrates the case as he did the first one. Warm-hearted, conventional and easily alarmed, he is painfully conscious of being slower than he was, and he is preoccupied above all with his grown daughter Judith, whose reserve he cannot get past.

Appears from the start

The Belgian detective at the end of his life, crippled by arthritis and confined to a wheelchair, with a failing heart that obliges him to keep ampoules of a stimulant within reach. His body has given out and his mind has not, and he has come back to Styles for a purpose he has thought through carefully. He sends for Hastings to be his hands, his eyes and his legs.

Appears from the start

Poirot's manservant, a large, silent, capable man who lifts him, dresses him and wheels him about, and who is otherwise scarcely noticed by the household.

Appears from the start

Hastings's daughter, a research assistant to Dr Franklin, cool, clever, and impatient with sentiment. She holds views about usefulness and about lives that are not worth prolonging, and states them with a directness her father finds chilling. She keeps her private affairs entirely to herself.

Appears from the start

The proprietor of Styles, now a guest house, an elderly retired soldier, courteous, vague and visibly worn down. He is hopeless with money and is nagged in front of his guests by his wife, which the other residents find painful to watch.

Appears from the start

Colonel Luttrell's wife, who runs the guest house with brisk efficiency and a sharp tongue, and who corrects and belittles her husband in public. She is a capable manager and can be charming when it suits the business.

First appears in chapter 2

A research scientist working on the properties of a poisonous West African bean, absorbed in his work to the exclusion of nearly everything else, including his invalid wife. Blunt and awkward in company, he employs Judith Hastings as his assistant and would like to go to Africa to continue the research.

First appears in chapter 2

Dr Franklin's wife, a delicate woman who spends much of her time lying down and who talks charmingly about being a burden to her husband. Other people find her either pathetic or exhausting, depending on the day and their own patience.

First appears in chapter 2

The nurse engaged to look after Mrs Franklin, competent and outwardly patient, though privately weary of a patient whose illness leaves her a good deal of energy for making demands.

First appears in chapter 2

A quiet, unassuming guest with a stammer and a passion for bird-watching, forever offering people his field glasses. He is a good listener, sympathetic and self-effacing, the sort of man everyone confides in and nobody remembers afterwards.

First appears in chapter 2

A good-looking man of the world staying at Styles, amusing, practised and with a reputation where women are concerned. Hastings dislikes him on sight and is alarmed by the amount of time Judith spends in his company.

First appears in chapter 2

A guest in her thirties, still handsome but withdrawn and apologetic, who avoids talking about her family. She becomes friendly with Hastings and eventually tells him that she is living under a changed surname because of a notorious case in her past.

First appears in chapter 4

A wealthy baronet, recently returned from a colonial governorship, hearty, popular and full of plans for the estate he has inherited nearby. He is an old acquaintance of the Franklins and takes a kindly interest in Barbara Franklin's health.