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A review by joodi
The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Christie
3.0
The conceit of this book is basically how far Poirot will go in order to be petty and prove a point. I like the idea of mysteries paying homage to the labours of Hercules but a lot of them were a stretch and did not really have anything to do with the labor. Other times the story bent over backwards to hammer the point home that it was about xyz labour in an insufferable way (I'm looking at you the Augean Stables).
This is really a collection of short stories so I'm going to do a speed round commenting on each one:
The Nemean Lion- It's basically a worse version of the Scooby Doo episode Decoy for a Dognapper. I don't get why this was about a dog.
The Lernaean Hydra- Some more intrigue in this one, but with a predictable ending. At least it wasn't about a dog.
The Arcadian Deer- An interesting one I suppose, it was a bit convoluted but I did enjoy how the facts come together by the end.
The Erymathian Boar- my absolute favorite of these stories, Poirot is trying to sniff out the mob boss on the run among a group of vacation-goers at an off-season ski resort. There is intrigue and many a fake-out, some great stuff stuffed into a handful of pages
The Augean Stables- very unsure about where I land on this one which basically amounts to "politics and the media and stuff". We get that this is based off of the Augean Stables, I don't understand why the characters have to conveniently mention that every 3 minutes.
The Stymphalean Birds- "those random landes look like BIRDS....the Stymphalean BIRDS were Hercules' sixth task...yah that should do it"
The Cretan Bull- always nice to have family ruining each others lives but what was that ending...
The Horses of Diomedes- the worst one. It was not so much a mystery and more like a badly made drug PSA. Don't do drugs kids or Hercule Poirot will virtue signal your ass.
The Girdle of Hyppolita- my second favorite story because we get an actually compelling and hard-to-solve mystery here. Although we didn't need the boarding school girls drooling over Poirot because let's be real that would never happen.
The Flock of Geryon- I will say Christie gets props for trying out new ideas for what Poirot could possibly involve himself in, a new age cult is a fun setting even if the mystery wasn't much of a mystery. Also Ms.Carnaby you will always be famous.
The Apples of Hesperides- A globetrotting case should've been the most exciting one but it fell flat.
The Capture of Cerberus- this was the mystery which most literally echoed its assigned Herculean labor which was fun.
This is really a collection of short stories so I'm going to do a speed round commenting on each one:
The Nemean Lion- It's basically a worse version of the Scooby Doo episode Decoy for a Dognapper. I don't get why this was about a dog.
The Lernaean Hydra- Some more intrigue in this one, but with a predictable ending. At least it wasn't about a dog.
The Arcadian Deer- An interesting one I suppose, it was a bit convoluted but I did enjoy how the facts come together by the end.
The Erymathian Boar- my absolute favorite of these stories, Poirot is trying to sniff out the mob boss on the run among a group of vacation-goers at an off-season ski resort. There is intrigue and many a fake-out, some great stuff stuffed into a handful of pages
The Augean Stables- very unsure about where I land on this one which basically amounts to "politics and the media and stuff". We get that this is based off of the Augean Stables, I don't understand why the characters have to conveniently mention that every 3 minutes.
The Stymphalean Birds- "those random landes look like BIRDS....the Stymphalean BIRDS were Hercules' sixth task...yah that should do it"
The Cretan Bull- always nice to have family ruining each others lives but what was that ending...
The Horses of Diomedes- the worst one. It was not so much a mystery and more like a badly made drug PSA. Don't do drugs kids or Hercule Poirot will virtue signal your ass.
The Girdle of Hyppolita- my second favorite story because we get an actually compelling and hard-to-solve mystery here. Although we didn't need the boarding school girls drooling over Poirot because let's be real that would never happen.
The Flock of Geryon- I will say Christie gets props for trying out new ideas for what Poirot could possibly involve himself in, a new age cult is a fun setting even if the mystery wasn't much of a mystery. Also Ms.Carnaby you will always be famous.
The Apples of Hesperides- A globetrotting case should've been the most exciting one but it fell flat.
The Capture of Cerberus- this was the mystery which most literally echoed its assigned Herculean labor which was fun.