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A review by thaurisil
The Labors of Hercules: Featuring Hercule Poirot by Agatha Christie
3.0
Taking place about 20 years after The Big Four, this book features Hercule Poirot as an elderly man. On a whim, he decides that the final twelve cases of his career would each correspond to one of Hercules' twelve labours. It is a clever way for Agatha Christie to bring us Poirot tackling cases that are atypical for him on the pretext that these cases involve an element that corresponds, sometimes in a remote way, to one of the twelve labours. These are cases that don't involve murders, that involve thefts, deceptions and missing persons, and cases which don't involve crime at all, but benefit from Poirot's creative, intelligent way of thinking out of the box.
Agatha Christie tends impress when she writes stories with hidden subplots and occasionally complex plotlines. As such, the whodunnits in this book are not satisfying. The criminals are easily guessed – they are the least likely person – but there aren't enough clues for the reader to figure out who the criminal is logically. However, I did like the variety of cases, criminal or otherwise, and the twists that every story ended in.
Agatha Christie tends impress when she writes stories with hidden subplots and occasionally complex plotlines. As such, the whodunnits in this book are not satisfying. The criminals are easily guessed – they are the least likely person – but there aren't enough clues for the reader to figure out who the criminal is logically. However, I did like the variety of cases, criminal or otherwise, and the twists that every story ended in.