3.63 AVERAGE

adventurous challenging lighthearted mysterious relaxing medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Hercule Poirot has a friend over one evening and over drinks the topic of names comes up and the man points out that Hercule Poirot is hardly a Hercules.  This gets Poirot to thinking and he decides to prove that he is indeed able to live up to the name by solving twelve cases to rival the Twelve Labors of Hercules.  The rest of the book is a collection of short stories featuring cases that connect with each of the Labors.

Title List in the collection:

The Nemean Lion 
- a stolen Pekinese from a wealthy woman's companion

The Lernean Hydra
 - village rumors about a doctor killing his wife

The Arcadian Deer 
- a village mechanic wishes to find the beautiful lady who shared one glorious day together

The Erymanthian Boar - 
trapped in a Swiss mountain hotel with a killer

The Augean Stables 
- an unscrupulous newspaperman threatens to print a story that will topple the new Prime Minister's career and the former PM's reputation.

The Stymphalean Birds 
- an Englishman on holiday gets embroiled in murder and blackmail.

The Cretan Bull 
- a woman is convinced her fiance is not mad and needs Poirot to prove it in the face of damaging evidence to the contrary.

The Horses of Diomedes 
- stop a drug dealer and save four wild general's daughter from ruin

The Girdle of Hyppolita 
- art theft and a missing school girl case on the train to Paris

The Flock of Geryon 
- the lady's companion who featured in The Nemean Lion story wants to have an adventure and help Poirot solve a case.  She must work on the inside to bring down a fake cult to save her friend from a con

The Apples of Hesperides 
- a wealthy collector wants the antique chalice of the Borgias returned after a thief stole it.

The Capture of Cerberus
- another familiar character from a story not in this collection, the Countess Rossakoff returns as the proprietress of a happening London night club, Inspector Japp wants help bringing down the drug and jewel trade going on there.

Hugh Fraser narrated to perfection this dozen short story gems that delighted me.  I enjoyed the Greek mythology connection highlighted in each story that was well-developed and entertaining in a compact word count.
adventurous lighthearted mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
funny mysterious tense fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous funny mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
mysterious medium-paced
mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No
adventurous challenging mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
funny mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
adventurous mysterious fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

This was a fun collection. The stories are connected by the slightly tenuous link of Poirot solving 12 cases which relate to the classic Greek stories of Heracles. That concept didn't really affect my enjoyment either way but the stories themselves were entertaining. Mystery short stories sometimes aren't that satisfying because there's not much time to build enough of a case and then have a rewarding conclusion, but luckily I didn't find that here.