The Labours of Hercules (Poirot)
By (Author) Agatha Christie
HarperCollins Publishers
HarperCollins
22nd April 2014
13th March 2014
United Kingdom
General
Fiction
Classic crime and mystery fiction
Crime and mystery: private investigator / amateur detectives
Fiction: narrative themes
Fiction: pastiche
823.912
Paperback
400
Width 129mm, Height 198mm, Spine 25mm
280g
Poirot sets himself a challenge before he retires to solve 12 cases which correspond with the labours of his classical Greek namesake
In appearance Hercule Poirot hardly resembled an ancient Greek hero. Yet reasoned the detective like Hercules he had been responsible for ridding society of some of its most unpleasant monsters.
So, in the period leading up to his retirement, Poirot made up his mind to accept just twelve more cases: his self-imposed Labours. Each would go down in the annals of crime as a heroic feat of deduction.
Twelve little masterpieces of detection. Poirot and Agatha Christie at their inimitable best
Sunday Express
I have often thought that Mrs Christie was not so much the best as the only living writer of the true of classic detective story
Margery Allingham
A finely shaped book, richly devious and quite brilliant by far the best volume of Poirot shorts
San Francisco Chronicle
Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign countries. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott.