Chief Inspector Japp

The police detective modelled on Sherlock Holmes's Lestrade.

Inspector James Japp, later Chief Inspector, is a police detective who appears in several of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot novels. Christie based him on Inspector Lestrade from Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes stories: in his first appearance, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, he is described as a "ferret-faced man", echoing Doyle's "ferret-like" Lestrade. He appears in seven Christie novels, including The Big Four, Peril at End House and Lord Edgware Dies.

Quick Facts

First

The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Creator

Agatha Christie

Portrayed by

Melville Cooper
John Turnbull
Maurice Denham
David Suchet
Philip Jackson
Kevin McNally

Occupation

Chief inspector of Scotland Yard

Nationality

British

More in Characters & Cast

Arthur Hastings John Cavendish Mary Cavendish Colonel Arbuthnot Mrs. Hubbard Roger Ackroyd Flora Ackroyd Mrs. Ackroyd Mrs. Ferrars M. Bouc M. Renauld Inspector Japp

Elsewhere in Hercule Poirot

Death on the Nile (2022) · Adaptations & Media Alibi · Films The Mystery of the Blue Train · Cases & Stories Murder in Mesopotamia · Cases & Stories Cat Among the Pigeons · Cases & Stories The Orient Express · Locations & Settings

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