The Labors of Hercules published in 1947 is a set of twelve stories in which Poirot decides to solve twelve final cases before retiring to grow vegetable marrows. He was always talking about retiring to grow vegetable marrows which always seemed a singularly tedious retirement to me. At any rate, Christie is clever with her modern takes on the twelve labors, but I rarely find short stories satisfying and this was no different. One barely gets started before it’s over.
I can also use this cover for the Vintage Cover Scavenger Hunt because it has a painting.
Trying to think up something worth saying about this, but nothing is coming to mind. They’re pretty good stories, the framing device works well enough, solid, but not spectacular. I believe Kaggsy read and reviewed this and probably had something much better to say.
And then I had the idea to watch the David Suchet version. Couldn’t imagine how they would do it, except perhaps to take 3 or 4 of them and film those, but they are cleverer than I. What they did was to change some settings and a few other plot points and mush half of them into one trip to a grand old watering hole on a Swiss alp. After an opening murder/jewel theft/painting theft to get Poirot emotionally invested, we adjourn to Switzerland where the spa guests are trapped by an avalanche – these include plots of The Stymphalean Birds, The Arcadian Deer, elements of The Girdle of Hippolyta, The Capture of Cerberus and The Erymanthian Boar. It does seem a shame to have no Miss Carnaby and the Pekingese dog, but the pug does his best. A pretty good adaptation if you aren’t too particular about fidelity to the book. Here’s the Hotel Olympus looking far faker than it does when you’re watching:
Overall an enjoyable read and watch.
ravenscroftcloud 