Why must he always fail to solve the crime and how did he get to be Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard with those skills? Regardless, I love the character, his interaction with Poirot and his references to his wife as "my Emily" :)
share"Why must he always fail to solve the crime"
Because it's one of the (unwritten) rules of the Classic mystery/crime novel that the official police representative is portrayed as stupid. :)
Jessica Rabbit
"I'm not bad. I'm just drawn that way."
Yes, I love Japp and his friendship with Poirot. But you have to wonder how he made it to Chief Inspector solving the cases himself before meeting Poirot
shareIt's obvious, many a innocent men went to the gallows before Piorot came onto the scene.
shareWell, not necessarily so obvious. There is a difference between being charged with a crime, and being convicted in court.
It might also be that Poirot is only called in on the more difficult cases, and that Japp is perfectly competent with most other cases.
having said that, I do still feel sorry for Japp. WOuld like to see him have a Eureka moment of his own.
What I really like about the Japp character relative to the usual bumbling/incompetent police inspector trope from the Mystery genre is that he is never stingy in his praise of Poirot. Usually, characters like his disdain the brilliant hero, but Japp tells anyone listening that Poirot is exceptional.
sharePoirot was of course a retired policeman himself.
Japp isn't bumbling as such I think he is shrewd enough to use Porirot's abilities in such a way as to further his own career.
Many are not intelligent enough to realise this and do it, but Japp is,