Characters in The Labours of Hercules

Hercule Poirot

The Belgian detective sets himself a vanity-tinged scheme of twelve final cases, half-amused and half-stung by comparison to his mythic namesake.

Also in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links, Poirot Investigates, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, The Big Four, Mystery of the Blue Train, Black Coffee, Peril at End House, Lord Edgware Dies, Murder on the Orient Express

Dr Burton

A classicist friend and fellow of an Oxford college whose teasing remark about the Twelve Labours sparks Poirot's entire retirement scheme.

Countess Vera Rossakoff

Poirot's old flame and former adversary, a flamboyant Russian aristocrat who reappears in the final story and draws him into its underworld setting.

Also in The Big Four

Miss Lemon

Poirot's brisk, hyper-efficient secretary, who frames the opening case by reading him the client's letter.

Also in The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding, The Mystery of the Spanish Chest