Short Story Wednesday: Stories from The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Christie

 

The Labors of Hercules is a short story collection written by Agatha Christie and first published in 1947. The stories all feature Hercule Poirot; each story has some connection to the twelve Labors of Hercules. Poirot has decided that he will end his career with these cases and then retire (to cultivate marrows in his garden). There is a short introduction to the stories which explains how Poirot came upon this idea.

I wanted to read this collection of short stories before we watch the corresponding TV episode in Agatha Christie's Poirot. Monday I started reading the book but I have only read the first four stories so far. They were mostly very good.

"The Nemean Lion"

The very first story was my favorite of the four. Miss Lemon, Poirot's secretary, has a small part in the story. 

Sir Joseph Hoggin requests that Poirot look into the theft of his wife's Pekinese. The dog has been returned, but they had to pay money to get the dog back. He wants the culprit found and his money returned. This story was a lot of fun and the characters were very interesting. A wonderful and very unusual ending.

"The Lernean Hydra"

A physician who has a practice in a small village wants Poirot to clear his name. Village gossip is that the doctor is responsible for his wife's death, and his practice is suffering. George, Poirot's valet, is enlisted to help with the investigation. I found this one to be the least interesting. It was a pretty standard story with no surprises. 

"The Arcadian Deer"

When Poirot's chauffeur-driven car breaks down in an English village, Poirot is unhappy to have to spend the night in the village. The mechanic, Ted Williamson who is working on his car asks Poirot to find a missing girl that he met a few weeks earlier. Ted had met the maid of a famous Russian ballerina who was staying at Grasslawn, the home of Sir George Sanderfield; they arranged to meet again, but she never showed up, and he had been unsuccessful at locating her. Ted has little money but his case interests Poirot so he looks into it. 

This case takes Poirot to Pisa in Italy and then to Switzerland, where the ballerina was staying. How Poirot finds the missing girl is interesting. The ending is very sentimental and I loved that.

"The Erymanthian Boar"

After ending up in Switzerland in the last story, Poirot decides to stay there and visit some locations he has never seen before. This leads to a ride on a funicular up into the Swiss Alps. Poirot is passed a note by the conductor while on the trip up. The note is from  Lementeuil, a Swiss policeman that Poirot knows. It asks Poirot to help in apprehending a dangerous killer who will be at the hotel where Poirot will be staying. This is a very complicated story; the funicular is damaged and no one can leave the hotel. This is a thriller with mistaken identities. I found it confusing but still a fun read. 

So those are my thoughts on the four stories so far, and I hope it doesn't take long for me to finish reading the book, so I can watch the adaptation. I have watched it before but I can't remember much about it.

Ellis Peters: Monk's Hood

From a summary at Goodreads:

Christmas 1138. Gervase Bonel is a guest of Shrewsbury Abbey of Saint Peter and Saint Paul when he suddenly takes ill. Luckily, the abbey boasts the services of the clever and kindly Brother Cadfael, a skilled herbalist. Cadfael hurries to the man’s bedside, only to be confronted with two surprises: In Master Bonel’s wife, the good monk recognizes Richildis, whom he loved before he took his vows—and Master Bonel has been fatally poisoned by monk’s-hood oil from Cadfael’s stores.

The sheriff is convinced that the murderer is Richildis’s son, Edwin, who hated his stepfather. But Cadfael, guided in part by his concern for a woman to whom he was once betrothed, is certain of her son’s innocence. Using his knowledge of both herbs and the human heart, Cadfael deciphers a deadly recipe for murder.

Monk's Hood is the third book in the Brother Cadfael series, consisting of 20 books. I am enamored of this series and both this book and the previous book (One Corpse Too Many) were fantastic reads. 

Sometimes it is daunting to start a new series when it has a large number of books , but in this case I am excited. The books are a good length, easy to read and keep me turning the pages. Plus it is the first time I have read about this period of time. This one is set in 1138 and that time in history is totally new to me.

One of the reasons I think this series is so successful is the character of Brother Cadfael. He is very believable as an amateur sleuth; not only is he intelligent and clever, but he is able to work well with people, those in his order and the people of the town. He entered the cloister later in life, after being a soldier and a sailor. He is a herbalist and cares for the garden.  

I also love reading about details of life at that time and about the religious community and the politics within that group. A good portion of this book is set in Wales, and I am beginning to get a better picture of the geography of that part of Great Britain. The differences in the legal systems of England and Wales were very interesting and were important to this story and the solution of the crime.

In the editions I have read so far, each book begins with a map of the area. In this case the map shows details of the Shrewsbury Abbey and parts of the town of Shrewsbury, including the location the house that Master Bonel and his household are living in. 

Rick Robinson of Tip the Wink recently sent me a copy of The Cadfael Companion, a reference book about the series. It is very cool, has lots of information about important persons of the time, locations, historical background, characters in the books, and I am learning a lot. It also has various maps of the area – I love maps. 

I will end with a quote from the beginning of the book:

  On this particular morning at the beginning of December, in the year 1138, Brother Cadfael came to chapter in tranquillity of mind, prepared to be tolerant even towards the dull, pedestrian reading of Brother Francis, and long-winded legal haverings of Brother Benedict the sacristan. Men were variable, fallible, and to be humoured. And the year, so stormy in its earlier months, convulsed with siege and slaughter and disruptions, bade fair to end in calm and comparative plenty. The tide of civil war between King Stephen and the partisans of the Empress Maud had receded into the south-western borders, leaving Shrewsbury to recover cautiously from having backed the weaker side and paid a bloody price for it. And for all the hindrances to good husbandry, after a splendid summer the harvest had been successfully gathered in, the barns were full, the mills were busy, sheep and cattle thrived on pastures still green and lush, and the weather continued surprisingly mild, with only a hint of frost in the early mornings. No one was wilting with cold yet, no one yet was going hungry. It could not last much longer, but every day counted as blessing.

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Publisher:   Fawcett Crest, 1987 (first published 1980)
Length:       222 pages
Format:      Paperback

Series:       Brother Cadfael #3
Setting:      UK, Shrewsbury, Wales
Genre:       Historical Mystery
Source:      Purchased at the Planned Parenthood Book Sale, 2006.

Short Story Wednesday: An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed by Helene Tursten

Two years ago I read and reviewed the first set of short stories featuring Maud, An Elderly Lady Is Up To No Good. I liked the stories very much, and looked forward to reading the next collection. Recently I read the first five stories in An Elderly Lady Must Not Be Crossed.

Maud is an 88-year-old Swedish woman with an ample income, a loner who is content with her life. But she has no second thoughts about eliminating anyone who gets in her way. In my review of the first book of short stories about Maud, I tried to avoid direct references to how Maud deals with the problems in her life. I think it is more fun to read that book not knowing much about the character. But most people know the premise when they read this second book, and I couldn't  avoid it when discussing this book.

When Maud is presented with a person who is causing problems in her life (or that of her family or friends), she looks for a way to fix that problem, by whatever means available. The solution doesn't always end in death, but she is fine if it does. She is very clever and usually the murder is not identified as such. But in the first story in this book she remembers the results of one of her exploits when she was interviewed by the police several times.

I am of two minds about the stories in this book (so far). I definitely enjoyed the first book. But for some reason I was less comfortable reading about Maud's exploits in the first five stories in this book. The stories were a bit depressing. 

On the other hand, I think the writing is very good and the character is interesting. I like the structure of the book. The short stories in this book all center around Maud's memories of earlier in her life as she flies on an airplane to South Africa, where she will join a tour that includes a safari.

I have not yet read the last story in this book, "The Elderly Lady Takes a Trip to Africa." It is not short at all, about 150 pages long, although admittedly the page size is small. So, closer to a novella than a short story. Once I finish that story I will decide whether to use this book for the European Reading Challenge, since about half the book is set in Sweden and the rest in Africa.

Both collections of short stories about Maud have some connection to Christmas, and this one has two recipes for gingerbread cookies, so you could save them for reading at Christmas (or even for a Christmas present) if you were so inclined.

These stories were written by Helene Tursten, the author of the Inspector Irene Huss series. The author is Swedish, and the stories were translated by Marlaine Delargy.

Reading Ireland: Watermelon by Marian Keyes

I was initially reluctant to read this book because it is described as chick lit. At the time I bought the book, in 2014, I mainly read mysteries. All kinds, all vintages, but mostly mysteries, and very little general fiction. I was curious because I had read a review of The Mystery of Mercy Close by Marian Keyes at Clothes in Books, but it was part of a series about a family of five girls, and I was interested in starting at the beginning. As you can see, it took me eight years to get to this book. My reading tastes have changed a bit since, and I was not disappointed in this book at all. 

The main character is Claire and the book starts out thus:

February fifteenth is a very special day for me. It is the day I gave birth to my first child. It is also the day my husband left me. As he was present at the birth, I can only assume the two events weren't entirely unrelated.

Claire had no clue that her husband was unhappy with the marriage and was having an affair with a woman that they both know. Obviously, such an announcement right after the birth of a baby would be upending. Her reaction is to leave London, where she works and lives with her husband, and go to Dublin and stay with her parents for a few months. A very good decision, I think, a place where she will have support.

I don't exactly know how to describe this book. It is frenetic. Claire describes her ups and downs, her settling in with her parents and sisters and her child, and the new people she meets. It does cover topics that I normally would not be interested in. Shopping, for instance. Claire goes through despair and then anger at her husband and her predicament. And a lot of wine.

It was frustrating for me that neither Claire nor her husband made contact for several weeks after the baby's birth. Thus the reader does not know why the difficulties in the marriage occurred, and that was a mystery to me. How they could not address support issues and how to deal with their joint properties seemed very strange. But everyone is different.

I love the Walsh family, especially Claire's parents. Her parents were wonderful, supportive people and had all the normal reactions to the situation. Her two youngest sisters still lived at home, and had very unique and irritating personalities, but were also supportive in different ways.

I read this for Reading Ireland month at 746 Books, and I think it was a very good choice for that event. I enjoyed reading Watermelon; it was a good change from my normal reading. It was too long for my tastes (over 400 pages) and I was not thrilled with the sex scenes, but both of those are minor quibbles. I do want to read more books in this series about the Walsh family, especially the mystery novel, which features the youngest daughter.

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Publisher:   Perennial, 2006. Orig. pub. 1995.
Length:      417 pages
Format:      Trade Paperback
Series:       Walsh Family, #1
Setting:      Dublin, Ireland
Genre:       Fiction
Source:      On my TBR since 2014.

Classics Club Spin #29

The latest Classics Club Spin has been announced. I have chosen twenty books from my classics list. I have added and deleted a few from my last list because I want to read some books for the Back to the Classics Challenge.

On Sunday 20th March, 2022, the Classics Club will post a number from 1 through 20. The goal is to read whatever book falls under that number on my Spin List by 30th April, 2022.

So, here is my list of 20 books for the spin.

1. Things Fall Apart (1958) by Chinua Achebe   [209 pages]
2. The Talented Mr. Ripley (1955) by Patricia Highsmith
3. Rebecca (1938) by Daphne du Maurier  [410 pages]
4. The Sign of Four (1890) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle 
5. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes  (1892) by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
6. The Great Gatsby (1925) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
7. The Quiet American (1958) by Graham Greene   [180 pages]
8. The Heart is a Lonely Hunter (1940) by Carson McCullers
9. The Wind in the Willows (1908) by Kenneth Grahame 
10. A Wrinkle in Time (1962) by Madeleine L'Engle
11. Beast In View (1955) by Margaret Millar
12. Anna Karenina (1878) by Leo Tolstoy  [over 800 pages]
13. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964) by Roald Dahl
14. My Ántonia (1918) by Willa Cather
15. Goodbye to Berlin (1939) by Christopher Isherwood
16. Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker    [420 pages]
17. Fahrenheit 451 (1953) by Ray Bradbury
18. The Postman Always Rings Twice (1934) by James Cain
19. Sense and Sensibility (1811) by Jane Austen
20. We Have Always Lived in the Castle (1962) by Shirley Jackson

Short Story Wednesday: Stories from Rumpole of the Bailey by John Mortimer

John Mortimer wrote a long series of novels and short story collections about Horace Rumpole, barrister at law. As I understand it, the TV series Rumpole of the Bailey came before the short stories and novels. I have seen some episodes of the TV series, although I barely remember them.

The First Rumpole Omnibus contains:

• Rumpole of the Bailey (6 short stories)
• The Trials of Rumpole (6 short stories)
• Rumpole's Return (a novel)

A few weeks ago I read the first story in Rumpole of the Bailey, "Rumpole and the Younger Generation." It is a longer short story at 40 pages, and introduces Rumpole, his wife Hilda and his son Nick. It also introduces us to his place of work and the Old Bailey. Although I enjoyed the story, it was a bit sad toward the end, and I wasn't sure whether I would continue reading the stories or not. (I don't reject sad stories usually, but for some reason it did not put me in the mood for continuing.)

On Monday night I decided to try the second story in the book, "Rumpole and the Alternative Society." It features a "hippie" group living at a place they call Nirvana, located in a resort town called Coldsands. A young female resident of the commune has been arrested for possession of a large amount of cannabis and Rumpole is sent to the resort city to defend her. His expenses are paid for by the Legal Aid Fund of Great Britain. And he enjoys a trip away from home. He will be staying with old friends he knew when he was in the RAF, an ex-pilot and his wife.

This paragraph is part of his description of the train trip to Coldsands.

So I was, as you can imagine, in a good mood as we rattled past Reading and cows began to be visible, standing in fields, chewing the cud, as though there were no law courts or judges in the world. You very rarely see a cow down the Bailey, which is one of the reasons I enjoy an occasional case on circuit. Circuit takes you away from Chambers, away from the benevolent despotism of Albert the clerk, above all, away from the constant surveillance of She Who Must Be Obeyed (Mrs Hilda Rumpole). I began to look forward to a good, old-fashioned railway lunch. I thought of a touch of Brown Windsor soup, rapidly followed by steamed cod, castle pudding, mouse-trap, cream crackers and celery, all to be washed down with a vintage bottle of Chateau Great Western as we charged past Didcot.

Rumpole, unfortunately, does not get his good, old-fashioned railway lunch.

One thing that is quite clear after reading these stories is that Rumpole loves his work. I enjoy the first person narration and the humor. So I will continue reading the stories, although at this point I only plan to read the stories in the first book, Rumpole of the Bailey.