Mathilde Noël

In Meurtres en solde , the French adaptation of Agatha Christie's Hercule Poirot's Christmas for Season 2 of the TV series Les Petits Meurtres d'Agatha Christie, Mathilde Noël is a cosmetics demonstrator at the Au Bon Temps department store and mother of Thierry Noël. The character is portrayed by Lara Guirao. There is no parallel to her in the original novel.

At the time of the events in the episode, Mathilde has been employed at the Au Bon Temps department store for a long time. She got her son a job at there but he is caught stealing and fired. Mathilde knew commissaire Laurence from long time back during the war when they were in the French resistance, so she goes to ask him to intercede for her son. She then drops a bombshell by telling him that Thierry is his son, conceived during a brief time together during the war.

Laurence does as requested but Simon Krepps, the owner of the department store is unsympathetic. He dislikes being presurised, especially by the police so he summarily fires Mathilde as well. Shortly thereafter, Mathilde comes to the department store to claim her severance pay. While she is there with Gaspard Carpentier, the personnel manager, they hear a loud crashing sound from upstairs and rush up to find Simon Krepps murdered.

Thierry becomes a prime suspect and his case is made worse when the police discover some uncut diamonds belonging to Krepps hidden in Mathilde's Japanese garden display. Mathilde confesses to the murder but Laurence sees through it as an attempt to protect her son. She cannot account for the events and the loud bump.

Thierry is absolved because he has an alibi with David Krepps but late in the episode, he rushes to the commissariat to report that Mathilde has disappeared. She had said something about not having a job but had found something better. Laurence surmises that Mathilde must have figured out who the real murderer is and has been trying to blackmail him. Laurence and Thierry eventually find Mathilde with Carpentier at the department store. Her attempt to blackmail has backfired and Carpentier is about to kill her but Laurence and Theirry intervene in time.