The Big Four

Overview – Hercule Poirot experiences his most important mystery, a conspiracy of four masterminds determined to upend the world order. Taking place over a course of over a year – Poirot constantly chases the Big Four finding a series of minor mysteries to solve. In Hercule Poirot’s fifth book, Agatha Christie tries to channel both Sherlock Holmes and Jules Verne by making Poirot’s mystery have the highest stakes – but ultimately fails. The Big Four’s ultimate plot falls flat with the book filled with mini-mysteries that are disappointing since the perpetrator is obvious from the start. The Good –Agatha Christie’s signature style makes the book a light read. Most chapters have a small mystery which are usually solved about 10 – 15 minutes too late. Several of them are well done even if the perpetrator is clear. Christie brings back some popular characters to varying success: Countess Vera Rossakoff returns and is a welcome addition. Less welcome is Major Hastings – a crutch Christie has used in the past which I hoped would have been forgotten. One of the better sequences is the introduction of Poirot’s brother. A clear homage to Sherlock’s smarter brother Mycroft, and is ultimately subverted. The Bad – Agatha Christie is the master of locked-room mysteries. Taking that formula and making basically a science-fiction story was a mistake. The Big Four’s master plan is never really makes sense and the ending is a little too convenient. The writing of the Big Four was challenging for Agatha Christie. Her mother recently died and her husband divorced her. Her brother suggested she put together a series of short stories she wrote for literacy magazines and connect them with a larger plot. The book is reflect all this. Christie has used Major Hastings in her previous works as a crutch that hampers her work – hopefully she will soon move past including him. Hasting’s absence helped make The Murder of Roger Ackroyd one of the greatest mysteries of all time. The Conclusion – I am reading the Hercule Poirot mysteries in order – if it wasn’t for that I would not have been able to finish the Big Four. This is Agatha Christie’s weakest book so far. Her style works best in more intimate settings – a world spanning adventure doesn’t work. There are some glimmers of hope for the future in the book – she has successfully subverted some of Arthur Conan Doyle’s themes.

I started getting into Poirot last month and love this series. This book took me a long time to read, maybe 10 days as opposed to the usual 2 or 3 days for Poirot mysteries. The reason is that this book was really hard to get into, it had such a long build up time and it was difficult to get invested into the characters since it\’s not in a closed settings. The underlying premise of this story is that Poirot is up against an extremely powerful, overreaching cabal that operates in the shadows- few government bodies know about this group, yet they are responsible for much of the chaos that is going on in Poirot\’s universe. I think this story itself progresses in the span of a year, maybe more maybe less it\’s tough to tell. The neat thing about taking me a long time to read this book as that made this whole ordeal feel drawn out, as it\’s supposed to. I read before I go to bed, and when I start back up the next night, I find that a few weeks or months have elapsed since I read the last part and it does help me feel the frustration Poirot must feel. Clues are extremely hard to come by, and Poirot seems to be growing increasingly paranoid as time passes. It\’s frustrating, it\’s unnerving, it\’s a massive conspiracy…you don\’t really know what the mystery you are trying to solve is until you are more than halfway into the book. This book is very different than any other Poirot book that I\’ve read, and I can see it is not for everyone. Like I mentioned, Agatha Christie usually builds a rich environment of complex characters that you start to become invested in, as you learn about their relationships with each other and their lies. In the Big Four, you hardly know who you are dealing with and so you don\’t get to delve deep into the character psyche as much. Of course, we are invested in Poirot and Hastings but they are not the story here. I know this is intentional because the big four are supposed to be this super secret group of people that no one knows anything about, so I can\’t really fault Christie here. However, I wish we got to spend more time on the Countess and her story. As always, Poirot\’s and Hastings\’ relationship is out in full play. They have a very nuanced friendship that is very difficult to understand. I hope we see more of the two as I love their back and forth.

Over the years I have bought and read all of Agatha Christie\’s hard copy books. My daughter gave me a Kindle for Christmas a couple of years ago. Since then I have been buying my favorite Christie books to read on my Kindle. I had forgotten how disapointiong this book was. I just wasted $7.99 . Good grief! Hercules seaching after evil strange Big 4 master minds who are going to destroy the world with a ray. .Silly and unbeevanble

I originally gave this book a bad review. I had it mixed up with another Agatha Christie book that I ordered. (The man in the brown suit…waste of money) The other book was similar in color & it was a late night at the time I was writing the review; I apologize. So, I had to come back and correct this review. This book titled \”The Big Four\” had a great cover, was delivered on time and in good shape. The type set/format was set correctly and easy to read. I have not finished this book yet, but it definitely has my interest. Great purchase to add to my Agatha Christie collection.

Although the subject matter is not my favorite, this book is much better than Christie\’s later works (the more recent her books, the more decline in quality of writing, in my experience). The book is good for the most part and I do love Hastings in the mix with Poirot. For me, the theme of the book is preposterous and seems more like an attempt at a producing a \”spy novel\”. Perhaps it was an experiment by the author. Nevertheless, I still find it interesting enough to read, mainly because of the Hastings-Poirot interactions. The writing is solid, just not as detailed or believable for me as most of the other work Ms. Christie achieved in the prime of her career.

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