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isabellarobinson7 's review for:
The Labours of Hercules
by Agatha Christie
Rating: 3 stars
So this was a pretty good story collection (even though a few of the stories were a little bit of a stretch) but my main issue with it and the reason it is not higher is because very few people actually died. Murder mysteries are always my favourite, because the stakes are automatically higher when people's lives are involved. Like, what would happen if we didn't catch the handbag thief? They... would just steal another handbag. That's obviously a bad thing, but what then happens if we don't catch the murderer? They could kill someone else. Plus, taking a life is undeniably a worse crime than taking a possession. This is why I rarely enjoy romance (what happens if they don't end up together? They just don't end up together. Now bring about a people's revolution against the monarchy that could go south at any moment on the other hand... (yeah you can tell I watched Dr. Zhivago recently) that's going to have some pretty nasty repercussions) because stakes always so low, and when the author attempts to raise them it feels artificial and contrived.
Anyway, to wrap up and bring this back to the point, there was one quote from The Labours of Hercules that is one of the most true sentences I've ever read in a book:
Amen brother! Preach! Hercules was the biggest dickhead of all and that alone should be his legacy. Ok I am done now.
So this was a pretty good story collection (even though a few of the stories were a little bit of a stretch) but my main issue with it and the reason it is not higher is because very few people actually died. Murder mysteries are always my favourite, because the stakes are automatically higher when people's lives are involved. Like, what would happen if we didn't catch the handbag thief? They... would just steal another handbag. That's obviously a bad thing, but what then happens if we don't catch the murderer? They could kill someone else. Plus, taking a life is undeniably a worse crime than taking a possession. This is why I rarely enjoy romance (what happens if they don't end up together? They just don't end up together. Now bring about a people's revolution against the monarchy that could go south at any moment on the other hand... (yeah you can tell I watched Dr. Zhivago recently) that's going to have some pretty nasty repercussions) because stakes always so low, and when the author attempts to raise them it feels artificial and contrived.
Anyway, to wrap up and bring this back to the point, there was one quote from The Labours of Hercules that is one of the most true sentences I've ever read in a book:
Take this Hercules-this hero! Hero, indeed! What was he but a large muscular creature of low intelligence and criminal tendencies!
Amen brother! Preach! Hercules was the biggest dickhead of all and that alone should be his legacy. Ok I am done now.