Mystery and Crime Lowndes, Marie Belloc: Herculean Labours [Det.Hercules Popeau]. v1. 13 Sep 2026

[GrannyGrump]

A small collection of short stories featuring Detective Hercules Popeau.

Popeau Intervenes

At a glamorous hotel on the French Riviera, former Sûreté detective Hercules Popeau uncovers a dangerous romantic intrigue: Lord Waverton is infatuated with glamorous Russian émigrée Countess Filenska, and they harbor a secret desire to be rid of the lovely Lady Waverton.

A Race for Life

When heir-apparent Jack Brantwood is mistakenly presumed dead due to long absence, his wastrel cousin Arthur borrows against the property. Jack’s wife desperately enlists the aid of Hercules Popeau — she is certain the unscrupulous money-lenders will murder Jack in order to protect their investment.

A Labour of Hercules

Popeau overhears a distressed young woman shouting for help in English from behind a locked hotel room door, but management and staff try to brush off the incident. Trusting his sharp intuition, he launches an unsanctioned investigation.

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Marie Adelaide Elizabeth Rayner Lowndes (née Belloc; 5 August 1868 – 14 November 1947) was an English novelist, and sister of author Hilaire Belloc. Active from 1898 until her death, she had a literary reputation for combining exciting incident with psychological suspense. Her most famous novel, The Lodger (1913), based on the Jack the Ripper murders of 1888, has been adapted for the screen five different times.

She produced over forty novels in all — mainly mysteries, and occasionally based on real-life crimes, though she herself resented being classed as a crime writer. She created the French detective Hercules Popeau, possibly before Agatha Christie’s creation of Belgian detective Hercule Poirot; this initiated a dispute between the two authors, with Lowndes claiming that Christie had effectively stolen her character and complaining to the Society of Authors.

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Contents first published 1926~1929. This book is in the public domain where copyright is “Life+70” or less, and in the USA.
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