Countess Vera Rosakoff

"A love like ours could have burnt down a city. Such a waste."

- The Countess before her arrest (in Agatha Christie's Poirot)

Countess Vera Rosakoff, or simply known as the Countess, is a recurring character in Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot series, starting as the main antagonist of the short story "The Double Clue" in Poirot's Early Cases, a major antagonist in The Big Four and the deuteragonist of "The Capture of Cerberus" from Labours of Hercules.

In Agatha Christie's Poirot, she was first portrayed by Kika Markham in "The Double Clue" and later by Orla Brady in "Labours of Hercules".

Overview
The Countess is flamboyant, eccentric and devious Russian aristocrat-turned-thief who currently had no personal fortune. She previously met Poirot in The Double Clue, where Poirot was smitten with her. She was an agent of the Big Four who later becames a double agent and an ally to Poirot.

The Countess is described as a tall and beautiful middle-aged woman with fiery red hair. It was speculated by Hastings that Poirot had some feeling for her, something Hastings jokingly mused that the short men always fell for tall and plump ladies.

Trivia

 * The Countess can be seen as Poirot's Irene Adler—they are the only women to catch the eyes of their respective detectives.