The study attempts to explore variation in the way a Greek and a Russian target version of Christie’s novel Murder on the Orient Express shapes the detective, Poirot. The data derived from the two last chapters of the novel, where the tension escalates before the detective unveils the truth. The study uses identity theory (Schwartz et al., in Handbook of Identity Theory and Research. Springer, New York, 2011) to highlight aspects of the detective’s identity as manifested in the two translations. Most of the findings are confirmed by a questionnaire addressing seven trilingual respondents, aged 22–40. The study shows how Greek and Russian translators are renegotiating Poirot’s figure: the detective appears more polite, elegant and gentle, in Greek, while in Russian he is more humorous, comprehensive and simple. The study suggests that translation practice is a rich resource for studying identity construction in fiction, raising awareness of the translators’ potential to interfere with identities.