<p><p>In appearance Hercule Poirot hardly resembled anancient Greek hero. Yet--reasoned the detective--like Hercules he had been responsible for riddingsociety of some of its most unpleasant monsters.</p> <p>So, in the period leading up to his retirement, Poirotmakes up his mind to accept just twelve more cases:his self-imposed "Labors." Each would go down in theannals of crime as a heroic feat of deduction.</p></p>