Part of Hercule Poirot, book 26
First published 2005
Hercule Poirot sits at a dinner party where another guest draws parallels between his detective work and the mythical labors of Hercules. The Belgian detective bristles at the comparison. Already planning his retirement from crime solving, Poirot decides to accept exactly twelve more cases, each one deliberately chosen to echo a labor performed by the ancient hero. His final investigations range from tracking down a missing poet to confronting a brutal killer. He unravels mysterious deaths within a religious cult and protects a young politician from blackmail schemes. Each case presents entirely different challenges and settings. Through these dozen mysteries, Poirot proves his methods one last time before stepping away from the world of crime. The collection becomes his deliberate farewell to detection, structured around the classical framework that so annoyed him at that fateful dinner.
Genres: 20th-century, mystery, detective, agatha-christie, short-story-collection
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: farewell, twelve-cases
Period: 20th Century
9 pages · Audio CD · BBC Audiobooks America