![]() ![]() All in all, though, an enjoyable read each time I checked the clock, I was amazed how much time had passed as I breezed through this book. Thrills were never the author’s strongpoint, nor the detective’s, and while he proves his worth in all the stores, including those few which involve spies and assassins, it’s harder to rein in one’s disbelief. It’s satisfactory, but Cerberus is possibly the weakest of the 12, since it centres around a thriller, not a mystery, and is reminiscent – for a few reasons – of the disastrous "The Big Four". The final story, "The Capture of Cerberus", serves as the last story to really deal with Poirot’s personal life until his swan song in "Curtain", bringing back a notable figure from his past, although leaving us with yet further questions. Almost all of the stories are diverting, and a few – "The Nemean Lion", "The Erymanthian Boar" – are very strong. Miss Lemon, Japp and George pop in on occasion (Hastings is left squarely in Argentina), but this is Poirot’s book, and overall, that’s probably a good thing. Besides, it’s nice to know that after decades of service, Poirot is generally held in high esteem. This is the middle-era Poirot: a man who believes wholeheartedly in himself, and who has come to understand the human heart as well as the mind, but isn’t yet as besieged by regrets as he will be in the often moving later novels. ![]() It’s pleasant that Christie would let her character be this much of a prig. Without Hastings, or indeed any narrator, we get to see Poirot at his most arrogant. Is there a more unusual book in the Christie canon? "The Labours" are some of the last short stories Christie wrote (possibly the last?) and she brings a consummate skill – in both prose and construction – that wasn’t always present in the early days. ![]() Poirot commits himself to retirement – once he has solved 12 cases which resemble the famed 12 labours of Hercules. ![]()
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