To think Poirot is better at solving crimes than preventing them?

[FoggyCrumpet]

I don't have an encyclopaedic memory for all the Poirot cases, I haven't done the stats.
But every so often we hear "you are absolutely safe. Poirot he gives you his word".
And next thing there's a dead heiress and Poirot is left playing catch up.
Personally I wouldn't entrust my life to him.

I've recently been rewatching this series and I quite agree, again I can't think of exact numbers but he says it a lot and then people end up not heeding his advice and they end up dying/being killed anyway.

But as Moonlight says, it's often because they did something anyone could see would lead to trouble. Like saying they think they know something, but they're not going to tell the police right away, they're not sure, so they want to think about it for a bit. Or he warns them that blackmail is a dangerous business, but they go ahead and try it anyway.

I wouldn't base any analysis on the tv series anyway. Always go by the books.

In the books I believe he says it once, and the fact that he fails to protect her haunts him and drives him to solve her murder.

Which book is that, do you remember?

Fancy a re-read!

I think he says it to one of the victims in Cards on the Table, urging them to confide in him - which they ignore and end up murdered.

It's not one of Christie's best - based on a bridge game with very detailed and boring accounts of the scores in each round of bridge.

Poirot also turns down quite a few offers to prevent deaths, saying that he's a detective and not a bodyguard. The future victim in Murder on the Orient Express tries to hire him before he is killed but Poirot declines the offer.

I don't, sorry. I just looked at a list of the titles to see if it would jog my memory but nope. I think the scene took place in a theatre?

@mum2jakie I quite like that one. I read all the Poirots in order and enjoyed seeing how Christie got better and better over the years. The Big Four is the only one that I found really dire.

In the Episode The Labours of Hercules, Poirot fails to protect a wealthy aristocrat, after promising she will be ok. It does happen a fair few times.

I'd still rather have him around - at least if I did get murdered he'd find the murderer pretty quickly.

My old neighbours were friends with David Suchet <adds irrelevant fact>

Hah! On our family watch-throughs, this was a common remark. Along with cheering when Japp appeared.