"Tell me, Hercule, is there such a thing as the perfect crime...?"

There is only one woman who captured the mind, imagination, appreciation, and heart of Hercule Poirot:

Presenting the Countess Vera Rossakoff. Véra and Réva Léonidovna Tumánova were the twin daughters of Count Léonid Mikhailmichelovich Tumánova, one of the greatest political minds of the old Imperial Russian régime, and Avdotia Sviatoslavova Valberkh, the prima ballerina from Kirov-Mariinsky Theatre of Opera and Ballet, but gave up her vocation when she married. Tutored at home in an affectionate but militaristic fashion, the Tumánovas constantly travelled between Sankt-Peterburg, Moskva, and Sibir as the twins became political active under the instruction of their father; however, women were not at liberty to influence any national politics at the time, but impressed many diplomats when the twins spoke. However, the failure to develop a constitutional government between 1905 and 1914 was partly due to the Tsar as he was unwilling to give up autocratic rule or to share power.

Bound by treaty, Tsar Nikolai II Alexandrovich Románov and his subjects entered the Great War at the defence of Serbia. At the opening of hostilities in August of 1914, the Russians took the offensive against both Germany and Austria-Hungary in support of her French ally. With the military failures and bureaucratic ineptitude that turned large segments of the population against the government, the Russian Revolution (1917) and the Russian Civil War (1917-1922) began and involved the overthrow of the tsarist autocracy and the Provisional Government, resulting in the establishment of Soviet power under the control of the Bolshevik party. The Red Army and the Cheka (the Secret Police) began a reign of the "Red Terror" to destroy all "enemies of the Revolution," which included the extermination of the "ruling classes." Her family, along with millions of others, was sent to concentration camps never to be seen again. Véra fled their homeland, but Europe was still recovering from the open wounds left behind in the Great War. Fearing the Cheka would discover that she eluded them, she changed Tumánova to Rossakoff.

With her startling violet eyes and lush raven hair, she is a sleek and stealthy creature balancing on the thin line between good and bad for the sake of her own survival. She became a master jewel thief, moving through Europe from one wealthy social gathering to another, dining with debutantes, and lunching with aristocrats — where she eventually came to London and met a Belgian detective named Hercule Poirot.


(La belle comtesse is French for "the beautiful countess." This is a line said by Albert Finney's Poirot in the amazing 1974 film, Murder on the Orient Express.

Sherlock Holmes had The Woman, Irene Adler; Hercule Poirot had the Countess Vera Rossakoff (sometimes misspelt as "Rossakov"). He actually meets the glamourous the Countess three times in the original books:  They first encounter each other in "Double Clue" from Poirot's Early Cases, where a mysterious jewel robbery happened in the middle of a party of over two hundred guests; then in the novel The Big Four, where her infant son named Niki (who looks suspiciously like Poirot) is kidnapped; and finally in "The Capture of Cerberus" from The Labours of Hercules, where she owns a London Underground club called "Hell," and presents her with a bouquet of red roses. The production of Double Clue, with David Suchet, is so ADORABLE, showing the relationship was more passionately involved, squee!

I consider Elizabeth Taylor simply as one of the most beautiful women in the world, inside and out! And what better model for a jewel theif than a woman who is legendary for her love affair with jewellery! The necklace Rossakoff is holding is based off the real-life "La Peregrina," translated "The Wanderer," so named by the giant pear-shaped pearl, weighing 203.84 grains. After its discovery in the Gulf of Panama in the 16th century, King Phillip II of Spain presented it as a wedding gift to his wife, Queen Mary of Scots. It has been knowned by Queen Margaret of Spain; Joseph Bonaparte, King of Spain; and was acquired by the British Marquis of Abercorn from the son of French Emperor Napoléon III. In 1969, it was purchased by actor Richard Burton for his wife, Elizabeth Taylor, who still owns it, mounted in a double-strand Oriental pearl choker that is intersected with diamonds, ruby quartrefoils, and a flame pendant.

I should be working on my class essays — but I don't want to, damnit! )

Models - Elizabeth Taylor

Medium – 3B graphite.

Countess Vera Rossakoff © Agatha Christie (and Diane N. Tran).