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Hercule Poirot #5
The Big Four
Framed in the doorway of Poirot’s bedroom stood an uninvited guest, coated from head to foot in dust. The man’s gaunt face stared for a moment, then he swayed and fell. Who was he? Was he suffering from shock or just exhaustion? Above all, what was the significance of the figure 4, scribbled over and over again on a sheet of paper? We follow Hercule Poirot as he finds himself plunged into a world of international intrigue, risking his life to uncover the truth about ‘Number Four’.
Librarian's note #1: the concept of The Big Four first appeared as weekly short stories very loosely connected in 'The Sketch' in 1924. The 12 original stories were: 1) The Unexpected Guest, 2) The Adventure of the Dartmoor Bungalow, 3) The Lady on the Stairs, 4) The Radium Thieves, 5) In the House of the Enemy, 6) The Yellow Jasmine Mystery, 7) The Chess Problem, 8) The Baited Trap, 9) The Adventure of the Peroxide Blond, 10) The Terrible Catastrophe, 11) The Dying Chinaman, and 12) The Crag in the Dolomites. For her 1927 novel, Christie enhanced the linkages between the stories and shuffled them somewhat.
Librarian's note: the first fifteen novels in the Hercule Poirot series are 1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920; 2) The Murder on the Links, 1923; 3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926; 4) The Big Four, 1927; 5) The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928; 6) Peril at End House, 1932; 7) Lord Edgware Dies, 1933; 8) Murder on the Orient Express, 1934; 9) Three Act Tragedy, 1935; 10) Death in the Clouds, 1935; 11) The A.B.C. Murders, 1936; 12) Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936; 13) Cards on the Table, 1936; 14) Dumb Witness, 1937; and 15) Death on the Nile, 1937. These are just the novels; Poirot also appears in this period in a play, Black Coffee, 1930, and two collections of short stories, Poirot Investigates, 1924, and Murder in the Mews, 1937. Each novel, play and short story has its own entry on Goodreads.
Librarian's note #1: the concept of The Big Four first appeared as weekly short stories very loosely connected in 'The Sketch' in 1924. The 12 original stories were: 1) The Unexpected Guest, 2) The Adventure of the Dartmoor Bungalow, 3) The Lady on the Stairs, 4) The Radium Thieves, 5) In the House of the Enemy, 6) The Yellow Jasmine Mystery, 7) The Chess Problem, 8) The Baited Trap, 9) The Adventure of the Peroxide Blond, 10) The Terrible Catastrophe, 11) The Dying Chinaman, and 12) The Crag in the Dolomites. For her 1927 novel, Christie enhanced the linkages between the stories and shuffled them somewhat.
Librarian's note: the first fifteen novels in the Hercule Poirot series are 1) The Mysterious Affair at Styles, 1920; 2) The Murder on the Links, 1923; 3) The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, 1926; 4) The Big Four, 1927; 5) The Mystery of the Blue Train, 1928; 6) Peril at End House, 1932; 7) Lord Edgware Dies, 1933; 8) Murder on the Orient Express, 1934; 9) Three Act Tragedy, 1935; 10) Death in the Clouds, 1935; 11) The A.B.C. Murders, 1936; 12) Murder in Mesopotamia, 1936; 13) Cards on the Table, 1936; 14) Dumb Witness, 1937; and 15) Death on the Nile, 1937. These are just the novels; Poirot also appears in this period in a play, Black Coffee, 1930, and two collections of short stories, Poirot Investigates, 1924, and Murder in the Mews, 1937. Each novel, play and short story has its own entry on Goodreads.
272 pages, Paperback
First published January 27, 1927
About the author
Agatha Christie
4,721 books69.6k followersAgatha Christie also wrote romance novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott, and was occasionally published under the name Agatha Christie Mallowan.
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, DBE (née Miller) was an English writer known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
This best-selling author of all time wrote 66 crime novels and story collections, fourteen plays, and six novels under a pseudonym in romance. Her books sold more than a billion copies in the English language and a billion in translation. According to Index Translationum, people translated her works into 103 languages at least, the most for an individual author. Of the most enduring figures in crime literature, she created Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple. She atuhored The Mousetrap, the longest-running play in the history of modern theater.
Associated Names:
Agata Christie
Agata Kristi
Агата Кристи (Russian)
Агата Крісті (Ukrainian)
Αγκάθα Κρίστι (Greek)
アガサ クリスティ (Japanese)
阿嘉莎·克莉絲蒂 (Chinese)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 5,575 reviews
August 26, 2011
This is a weird one. Apparently (I looked this up, because the book was so weird) Christie wrote a series of short stories about Poirot for some magazine and these stories were mashed together into this book. You can sort of tell that something like this is up, because the mashing didn't work all that well and things still seem a little disjointed.
But really, the main problem here is that Poirot is fighting a team of supervillains, and he uses disguises and smoke bombs and has to find their secret underground lair and the whole thing is just...odd. It comes off like Poirot fan fiction. I mean, he's the same character and all that, but the things he is doing are just not what I want Poirot to do. And the supervillains make no sense. They are a Chinese mastermind, a French woman scientist, an American billionaire, and an English master of disguise. How did these people get together? Why are they a team? Do they have any motive to speak of? They just want to take over the world and cause anarchy, for some reason. Sometimes Christie has characters talk of this "big four" wanting to cause world revolution "like in Russia", but that fails to clear things up. Are they communists? Why would the billionaire be a communist?
I don't want Poirot to fight supervillains. I want him in little English towns, ferreting out murderers who have motives. I like it when priggish British ladies say things like "What on earth are you on about, you batty little man?! Are you accusing me of murder?" to which Poirot says things like "You have, as they say, caught the bird in the bush, Madame. This is exactly what I accuse you of." And then he and Hastings drink sherry or something.
But really, the main problem here is that Poirot is fighting a team of supervillains, and he uses disguises and smoke bombs and has to find their secret underground lair and the whole thing is just...odd. It comes off like Poirot fan fiction. I mean, he's the same character and all that, but the things he is doing are just not what I want Poirot to do. And the supervillains make no sense. They are a Chinese mastermind, a French woman scientist, an American billionaire, and an English master of disguise. How did these people get together? Why are they a team? Do they have any motive to speak of? They just want to take over the world and cause anarchy, for some reason. Sometimes Christie has characters talk of this "big four" wanting to cause world revolution "like in Russia", but that fails to clear things up. Are they communists? Why would the billionaire be a communist?
I don't want Poirot to fight supervillains. I want him in little English towns, ferreting out murderers who have motives. I like it when priggish British ladies say things like "What on earth are you on about, you batty little man?! Are you accusing me of murder?" to which Poirot says things like "You have, as they say, caught the bird in the bush, Madame. This is exactly what I accuse you of." And then he and Hastings drink sherry or something.
March 13, 2014
Once upon a time, Agatha Christie stayed up way too late, drank her way through three bottles of Chardonnay and watched a Sean Connery James Bond film. As she was going to bed, some time about 3am, her eyes rested for a moment on her typewriter. I would not be in the least surprised if that was all she remembered about this book. For shame, Agatha. This is exactly the same reason I'm not allowed whisky and Twitter on the same evening any more.
August 16, 2019
Written in 1927, Hercule Poirot and Mr. Hastings pursue the existence of “The Big Four” – a Chinese man, an American man, a Frenchwoman, and an Englishman known as “the Destroyer” – in a quest to sideline their leadership in a conspiracy of global control.
Papers are discovered that refer to ”. . . some powerful wireless installation – a concentration of wireless energy far beyond anything so far attempted, and capable of focusing a beam of great intensity upon some given spot.” There is also a reference to harnessing atomic energy.
Where in the world, in the year 1927, would Agatha Christie have come across such a possibility? It boggles my mind.
Hercule Poirot and Mr. Hastings have several confrontations with members of the Big Four during the course of this novel, as they realize that Poirot must be eliminated if they are to succeed in their mission to control the world and all the entities that make the world turn. Along the way, Poirot and Hastings also need to deal with the “collateral damage” that the Big Four leave in their wake.
Agatha Christie continues to surprise me with the range of her mysteries and their complexity. Add in the quirks of some of her characters and a light touch of humour among heart-racing tensions, and this novel comes out a winner.
Papers are discovered that refer to ”. . . some powerful wireless installation – a concentration of wireless energy far beyond anything so far attempted, and capable of focusing a beam of great intensity upon some given spot.” There is also a reference to harnessing atomic energy.
Where in the world, in the year 1927, would Agatha Christie have come across such a possibility? It boggles my mind.
Hercule Poirot and Mr. Hastings have several confrontations with members of the Big Four during the course of this novel, as they realize that Poirot must be eliminated if they are to succeed in their mission to control the world and all the entities that make the world turn. Along the way, Poirot and Hastings also need to deal with the “collateral damage” that the Big Four leave in their wake.
Agatha Christie continues to surprise me with the range of her mysteries and their complexity. Add in the quirks of some of her characters and a light touch of humour among heart-racing tensions, and this novel comes out a winner.
July 27, 2024
About half way through this novel, I began to wonder just why there were so many characters. Agatha Christie often tried to bemuse her readers, by having a largish cast of characters to provide plenty of red herrings, but in this one, she really seemed to have taken this to the limit. It seemed as if in each chapter, we dispensed with most of those in the earlier ones, and were introduced to others. The only linking feature seemed to be that of The Big Four. It was more like reading a series of short stories, than a novel, I thought.
On completion of the novel, I googled to see when and where the author was when she had written it. Often this proves interesting, and one can see how dramatic situations, or current events in an author’s personal life, have influenced their writing. So I was surprised, but oddly satisfied, to learn that the novel of The Big Four, reviewed here, had begun as twelve short stories (or eleven in the US), each of which had been separately published. The twelve linked short stories first appeared in “The Sketch” magazine in 1924 under the series sub-heading, “The Man who was No. 4”, before being amalgamated into one narrative. I shall list them here, along with the relevant chapters in the book, for comparison. They were:
The Unexpected Guest: (chapters 1 and 2 of the book – The Unexpected Guest / The Man from the Asylum.)
The Adventure of the Dartmoor Bungalow: (chapters 3 and 4 of the book – We hear more about Li Chang Yen / The Importance of a Leg of Mutton.)
The Lady on the Stairs: (chapters 5 and 6 of the book – Disappearance of a Scientist / The Woman on the Stairs).
The Radium Thieves: (chapter 7 of the book)
In the House of the Enemy: (chapter 8 of the book)
The Yellow Jasmine Mystery: (chapters 9 and 10 of the book – The Yellow Jasmine Mystery / We investigate at Croftlands).
The Chess Problem: (chapter 11 of the book – A Chess Problem).
The Baited Trap: (chapters 12 and 13 of the book – The Baited Trap / The Mouse walks in).
The Adventure of the Peroxide Blonde: (chapter 14 of the book – The Peroxide Blonde).
The Terrible Catastrophe: (chapter 15 of the book)
The Dying Chinaman: (chapter 16 of the book)
The Crag in the Dolomites: (chapters 17 and 18 of the book – Number Four wins the trick / In the Felsenlabyrinth).
The resulting novel, comprising 18 chapters, was published in 1927, and is number five in the Poirot oeuvre. The beginning is exciting and intriguing. Captain Arthur Hastings has returned to England after 18 months, leaving his wife behind in Argentina. He pays a surprise visit to his old friend Hercule Poirot, but is astonished to find Poirot ironically on the verge of leaving for South America! Poirot tells him that he has been summoned to Rio de Janeiro by his newest client, the millionaire businessman, Abe Ryland.
However, he is delayed slightly when a stranger bursts in through Poirot’s bedroom. The man is emaciated, and covered from head to toe with dust and mud. He is emaciated, as though he has been long imprisoned, with little access to food. Collapsing on the floor, he says Poirot’s name, and writes the number 4.
Hastings mentions the “Big Four”, and gaining a little strength, the man begins to talk about about the international crime cartel of that name. He tells Poirot and Hastings that Number 1 is a Chinese political mastermind named Li Chang Yen. This man is the real brains behind the “Big Four”. Number 2 is usually not named but is represented by a dollar sign, or two stripes and a star, so he is probably American and he represents wealth. Number 3 is a Frenchwoman, and Number 4 is referred to as “The Destroyer” and is otherwise unknown.
The man is clearly in need of medical help, so Poirot and Hastings summon a doctor who examines the patient and prescribes rest. They leave the man in the care of Poirot’s housekeeper, and set off to catch a train to Southampton, so that Poirot can fulfil his next assignment. However, during the journey, Poirot realises that
Another stranger arrives, who claims to work for a lunatic asylum, and to be in search of an escaped inmate. He identifies the dead man as “Mayerling” the man in question, and leaves. However, Poirot is suspicious. Has the man really died from exhaustion? and sure enough the hands of the lounge clock have been turned to 4 o’clock, as a sign.
Already we are hooked into the premise of the novel, and this introductory sequence has effectively introduced us to the main villains of the piece. But from then on, the story becomes more disjointed, with a confusing number of characters who star briefly before disappearing again, and it is clear that the reason for this is because the “novel” is ten short stories loosely and clunkily connected.
The Big Four is not as popular as many of the other novels which feature our favourite portly Belgian detective and his well-meaning loyal companion, Captain Arthur Hastings. In fact it is unusual in another way too, fitting better into the genre of spy stories than detective stories, as it is a tale of international intrigue and espionage.
Personally I felt that Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings behaved atypically in this novel. It stretched my credulity to the utmost, to imagine the duo jumping from a moving train – accompanied by their luggage – or to have one of the daring duo suspended over an open trapdoor in a cellar in London’s Chinatown, within seconds of being plunged to his death into the icy river Thames.
I did attempt to go with the different portrayal of these two as dashing “Boy’s Own” heroes. And when one of them asked for a “last cigarette” before being put to death, I did not baulk too much at the unlikelihood of the cigarette chosen by the villain, being precisely the one containing a poison dart. I went along too with the assurance given by our gallant chap, that this could be directed at will to immediately kill the criminal mastermind. (I quite enjoyed the experience of vividly seeing a comic-book character in my mind’s eye!)
No, what really took the biscuit was the long speech explaining all this, made by our hero, whilst keeping the cigarette positioned carefully in his mouth to enable a direct hit! Just try miming this for yourself, and the absurdity soon hits you. It reminded me of grand opera, or a Shakespeare soliloquy, rather than a spy novel. And it reads like a penny dreadful.
Apart from the “Boys Own” feel, which jars with the characters of Poirot and Hastings, the resulting jaunty account of daring escapades is just far too complicated. Take the number of locations. Plenty of novels have a switch between locations once, or maybe twice. Or perhaps different characters move in between different locations. This we can follow.
But in The Big Four, we start off in Hercule Poirot’s apartment in London. Then we have an abortive railway trip to Southampton and a return to London. Then we visit a village in Devon, somewhere near Dartmoor. Then we seem to suddenly find ourselves miles away, in Chobham, Surrey.
Not content with this, we speed across to France, to the Passy area of Paris – and then rush back to England to Hatton Chase, (wherever that is – I suspect this is fictional) apparently the seat of the Duke of Loamshire, and then rush off to Market Hanford, in Worcestershire.
Phew! Have we finished? Not at all. We then return to where we started – to London – and through mysterious annals to London’s Chinatown. We must not forget an essential visit to a restaurant in Soho, and another trip abroad to Belgium: there are two trips on ocean-going ships.
Surely this is enough! But no. There is a final railway trip from London to Paris, and from there to the South Tyrol in Italy, bordering Austria.
Why? Who in their right mind would think this to be a good structure for a shortish novel? But once you know the provenance of the novel, the answer is obvious. It has only come about like this, because twelve stories have been cobbled together.
The Big Four was published a year after the inspired classic murder mystery “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” and remains rightly overshadowed by its predecessor. Agatha Christie was already deeply affected by the death of her mother earlier in 1926, and the breakdown of her marriage to Archibald Christie. It was her brother-in-law, Campbell Christie, who suggested collating her short stories from “The Sketch” magazine into a novel, rather than undergo the strain of composing a completely new novel. He actually helped Agatha Christie to adapt and edit them into one long sequence. In fact, all he really did was to slightly alter the beginning and end of each story, to join them up. The result is as you would expect.
It is on record that around this time, a novel was offered for publication to The Bodley Head and was rejected. It is quite likely to have been The Big Four. Agatha Christie also changed her publisher to William Collins, Sons., at this time, which seems to fit. The Big Four was published just a few weeks after Agatha Christie had famously disappeared without trace for ten days in December . This true life mystery ensured that whatever she wrote would inevitably have huge sales.
Many years later, in 1942, Christie wrote to her agent:
“I have been, once, in a position where I wanted to write just for the sake of money coming in and when I felt I couldn’t – it is a nerve wracking feeling … That was the time I had to produce that rotten book “The Big Four” and had to force myself [again] in “The Mystery of the Blue Train””: the following one in her canon, and which she had found an ordeal to write. Of that one, in Agatha Christie’s autobiography, she stated that she “always hated it”.
I do find myself wondering, with both these novels, whether Agatha Christie found that she could not dissociate her devastating experiences of life at that time, from her two novels, and this is why she continued to detest them so vehemently. I also feel that, because of this, if she had written them at a different time, they would have been much better books!
The BBC have adapted every single story about Hercule Poirot for television, over many years. David Suchet plays the lead character, and for many people he simply “is” Hercule Poirot. However, it is interesting that The Big Four, although an early novel, was one of the last to be adapted. Also noticeable is that the resulting episode is only very loosely based on the novel.
The much respected and talented writer, actor and director Mark Gatiss, who reworked the novel into an adaptation, considered it to be “an almost unadaptable mess”. He found it necessary to remove a great deal of the novel, including the death of .
Only three of the dozen stories are actually included: the leg of mutton case, the chess murder, and the yellow jasmine (or in the TV adaptation, gelsemine) mystery. Such a drastic removal of three quarters of the plot, means that the cast of characters is pared down to a manageable level, and I personally feel that he included three of the best stories. Even so though, Mark Gatiss found it necessary to miss out one major character, Countess Vera Rossakoff, whom Hercule Poirot had encountered before, and who comprised an essential part of the novel.
Perhaps though, the most significant changes were to the four villains themselves. In the novel, all four members of the Big Four: are revealed by Poirot to be guilty of their crimes, and aiming at world domination. But in the TV adaptation this is a completely different motive, and perhaps not as convincing – although who can say with such a stereotypical “madman”.
The ending of the novel and the adaptation are completely different, although Mark Gatiss has clearly tried to keep to the feel of the original stories, by including similar aspects such as , but writing a completely different scenario for it.
In the novel, the dramatic ending takes place in
To be honest, I enjoyed the adaptation of The Big Four far more than the original novel. Since Mark Gatiss made an exciting drama from a quarter of the short stories, it seems a shame that the other nine stories were not also adapted into further episodes. There is enough material here for four exciting episodes about the Big Four, and their attempts at world domination, at a time of uncertainty in history, between the two World Wars. But such was not to be.
I do not recommend reading this novel, but think the material does merit two stars for ingenuity, and there are some very amusing exchanges between Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings. However this duo do not really conform to the active heroes needed for the novel, and since the novel ends with Poirot retiring to grow vegetable marrows (as indeed, we see him doing at the beginning of the previous novel, “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”) the ages are disparate too.
But by far the biggest drawback is that forming the stories into such a hotch-potch of a novel, means that it does not even achieve the Goodreads three star rating of “I liked it”, for me. The individual stories themselves are still available, and it would probably be a far better reading experience to read them separately, instead.
On completion of the novel, I googled to see when and where the author was when she had written it. Often this proves interesting, and one can see how dramatic situations, or current events in an author’s personal life, have influenced their writing. So I was surprised, but oddly satisfied, to learn that the novel of The Big Four, reviewed here, had begun as twelve short stories (or eleven in the US), each of which had been separately published. The twelve linked short stories first appeared in “The Sketch” magazine in 1924 under the series sub-heading, “The Man who was No. 4”, before being amalgamated into one narrative. I shall list them here, along with the relevant chapters in the book, for comparison. They were:
The Unexpected Guest: (chapters 1 and 2 of the book – The Unexpected Guest / The Man from the Asylum.)
The Adventure of the Dartmoor Bungalow: (chapters 3 and 4 of the book – We hear more about Li Chang Yen / The Importance of a Leg of Mutton.)
The Lady on the Stairs: (chapters 5 and 6 of the book – Disappearance of a Scientist / The Woman on the Stairs).
The Radium Thieves: (chapter 7 of the book)
In the House of the Enemy: (chapter 8 of the book)
The Yellow Jasmine Mystery: (chapters 9 and 10 of the book – The Yellow Jasmine Mystery / We investigate at Croftlands).
The Chess Problem: (chapter 11 of the book – A Chess Problem).
The Baited Trap: (chapters 12 and 13 of the book – The Baited Trap / The Mouse walks in).
The Adventure of the Peroxide Blonde: (chapter 14 of the book – The Peroxide Blonde).
The Terrible Catastrophe: (chapter 15 of the book)
The Dying Chinaman: (chapter 16 of the book)
The Crag in the Dolomites: (chapters 17 and 18 of the book – Number Four wins the trick / In the Felsenlabyrinth).
The resulting novel, comprising 18 chapters, was published in 1927, and is number five in the Poirot oeuvre. The beginning is exciting and intriguing. Captain Arthur Hastings has returned to England after 18 months, leaving his wife behind in Argentina. He pays a surprise visit to his old friend Hercule Poirot, but is astonished to find Poirot ironically on the verge of leaving for South America! Poirot tells him that he has been summoned to Rio de Janeiro by his newest client, the millionaire businessman, Abe Ryland.
However, he is delayed slightly when a stranger bursts in through Poirot’s bedroom. The man is emaciated, and covered from head to toe with dust and mud. He is emaciated, as though he has been long imprisoned, with little access to food. Collapsing on the floor, he says Poirot’s name, and writes the number 4.
Hastings mentions the “Big Four”, and gaining a little strength, the man begins to talk about about the international crime cartel of that name. He tells Poirot and Hastings that Number 1 is a Chinese political mastermind named Li Chang Yen. This man is the real brains behind the “Big Four”. Number 2 is usually not named but is represented by a dollar sign, or two stripes and a star, so he is probably American and he represents wealth. Number 3 is a Frenchwoman, and Number 4 is referred to as “The Destroyer” and is otherwise unknown.
The man is clearly in need of medical help, so Poirot and Hastings summon a doctor who examines the patient and prescribes rest. They leave the man in the care of Poirot’s housekeeper, and set off to catch a train to Southampton, so that Poirot can fulfil his next assignment. However, during the journey, Poirot realises that
Another stranger arrives, who claims to work for a lunatic asylum, and to be in search of an escaped inmate. He identifies the dead man as “Mayerling” the man in question, and leaves. However, Poirot is suspicious. Has the man really died from exhaustion? and sure enough the hands of the lounge clock have been turned to 4 o’clock, as a sign.
Already we are hooked into the premise of the novel, and this introductory sequence has effectively introduced us to the main villains of the piece. But from then on, the story becomes more disjointed, with a confusing number of characters who star briefly before disappearing again, and it is clear that the reason for this is because the “novel” is ten short stories loosely and clunkily connected.
The Big Four is not as popular as many of the other novels which feature our favourite portly Belgian detective and his well-meaning loyal companion, Captain Arthur Hastings. In fact it is unusual in another way too, fitting better into the genre of spy stories than detective stories, as it is a tale of international intrigue and espionage.
Personally I felt that Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings behaved atypically in this novel. It stretched my credulity to the utmost, to imagine the duo jumping from a moving train – accompanied by their luggage – or to have one of the daring duo suspended over an open trapdoor in a cellar in London’s Chinatown, within seconds of being plunged to his death into the icy river Thames.
I did attempt to go with the different portrayal of these two as dashing “Boy’s Own” heroes. And when one of them asked for a “last cigarette” before being put to death, I did not baulk too much at the unlikelihood of the cigarette chosen by the villain, being precisely the one containing a poison dart. I went along too with the assurance given by our gallant chap, that this could be directed at will to immediately kill the criminal mastermind. (I quite enjoyed the experience of vividly seeing a comic-book character in my mind’s eye!)
No, what really took the biscuit was the long speech explaining all this, made by our hero, whilst keeping the cigarette positioned carefully in his mouth to enable a direct hit! Just try miming this for yourself, and the absurdity soon hits you. It reminded me of grand opera, or a Shakespeare soliloquy, rather than a spy novel. And it reads like a penny dreadful.
Apart from the “Boys Own” feel, which jars with the characters of Poirot and Hastings, the resulting jaunty account of daring escapades is just far too complicated. Take the number of locations. Plenty of novels have a switch between locations once, or maybe twice. Or perhaps different characters move in between different locations. This we can follow.
But in The Big Four, we start off in Hercule Poirot’s apartment in London. Then we have an abortive railway trip to Southampton and a return to London. Then we visit a village in Devon, somewhere near Dartmoor. Then we seem to suddenly find ourselves miles away, in Chobham, Surrey.
Not content with this, we speed across to France, to the Passy area of Paris – and then rush back to England to Hatton Chase, (wherever that is – I suspect this is fictional) apparently the seat of the Duke of Loamshire, and then rush off to Market Hanford, in Worcestershire.
Phew! Have we finished? Not at all. We then return to where we started – to London – and through mysterious annals to London’s Chinatown. We must not forget an essential visit to a restaurant in Soho, and another trip abroad to Belgium: there are two trips on ocean-going ships.
Surely this is enough! But no. There is a final railway trip from London to Paris, and from there to the South Tyrol in Italy, bordering Austria.
Why? Who in their right mind would think this to be a good structure for a shortish novel? But once you know the provenance of the novel, the answer is obvious. It has only come about like this, because twelve stories have been cobbled together.
The Big Four was published a year after the inspired classic murder mystery “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd” and remains rightly overshadowed by its predecessor. Agatha Christie was already deeply affected by the death of her mother earlier in 1926, and the breakdown of her marriage to Archibald Christie. It was her brother-in-law, Campbell Christie, who suggested collating her short stories from “The Sketch” magazine into a novel, rather than undergo the strain of composing a completely new novel. He actually helped Agatha Christie to adapt and edit them into one long sequence. In fact, all he really did was to slightly alter the beginning and end of each story, to join them up. The result is as you would expect.
It is on record that around this time, a novel was offered for publication to The Bodley Head and was rejected. It is quite likely to have been The Big Four. Agatha Christie also changed her publisher to William Collins, Sons., at this time, which seems to fit. The Big Four was published just a few weeks after Agatha Christie had famously disappeared without trace for ten days in December . This true life mystery ensured that whatever she wrote would inevitably have huge sales.
Many years later, in 1942, Christie wrote to her agent:
“I have been, once, in a position where I wanted to write just for the sake of money coming in and when I felt I couldn’t – it is a nerve wracking feeling … That was the time I had to produce that rotten book “The Big Four” and had to force myself [again] in “The Mystery of the Blue Train””: the following one in her canon, and which she had found an ordeal to write. Of that one, in Agatha Christie’s autobiography, she stated that she “always hated it”.
I do find myself wondering, with both these novels, whether Agatha Christie found that she could not dissociate her devastating experiences of life at that time, from her two novels, and this is why she continued to detest them so vehemently. I also feel that, because of this, if she had written them at a different time, they would have been much better books!
The BBC have adapted every single story about Hercule Poirot for television, over many years. David Suchet plays the lead character, and for many people he simply “is” Hercule Poirot. However, it is interesting that The Big Four, although an early novel, was one of the last to be adapted. Also noticeable is that the resulting episode is only very loosely based on the novel.
The much respected and talented writer, actor and director Mark Gatiss, who reworked the novel into an adaptation, considered it to be “an almost unadaptable mess”. He found it necessary to remove a great deal of the novel, including the death of .
Only three of the dozen stories are actually included: the leg of mutton case, the chess murder, and the yellow jasmine (or in the TV adaptation, gelsemine) mystery. Such a drastic removal of three quarters of the plot, means that the cast of characters is pared down to a manageable level, and I personally feel that he included three of the best stories. Even so though, Mark Gatiss found it necessary to miss out one major character, Countess Vera Rossakoff, whom Hercule Poirot had encountered before, and who comprised an essential part of the novel.
Perhaps though, the most significant changes were to the four villains themselves. In the novel, all four members of the Big Four: are revealed by Poirot to be guilty of their crimes, and aiming at world domination. But in the TV adaptation this is a completely different motive, and perhaps not as convincing – although who can say with such a stereotypical “madman”.
The ending of the novel and the adaptation are completely different, although Mark Gatiss has clearly tried to keep to the feel of the original stories, by including similar aspects such as , but writing a completely different scenario for it.
In the novel, the dramatic ending takes place in
To be honest, I enjoyed the adaptation of The Big Four far more than the original novel. Since Mark Gatiss made an exciting drama from a quarter of the short stories, it seems a shame that the other nine stories were not also adapted into further episodes. There is enough material here for four exciting episodes about the Big Four, and their attempts at world domination, at a time of uncertainty in history, between the two World Wars. But such was not to be.
I do not recommend reading this novel, but think the material does merit two stars for ingenuity, and there are some very amusing exchanges between Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings. However this duo do not really conform to the active heroes needed for the novel, and since the novel ends with Poirot retiring to grow vegetable marrows (as indeed, we see him doing at the beginning of the previous novel, “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd”) the ages are disparate too.
But by far the biggest drawback is that forming the stories into such a hotch-potch of a novel, means that it does not even achieve the Goodreads three star rating of “I liked it”, for me. The individual stories themselves are still available, and it would probably be a far better reading experience to read them separately, instead.
June 25, 2024
This one reads more like a spoof of Doyle's Sherlock Holmes than Christie's Poirot.
The Big Four is a sinister group of evil Moirartyesque masterminds who are poised to take over the world, and only Poirot is clever enough to stop them because no one else is even aware of their existence.
Silly Scotland Yard.
I will say that the best/goofiest thing about the story is that Poirot dons disguises and hones his spycraft with gadgets that shoot knockout gas. But the crowning moment is when he like he's in a telenovela!
I'm not sure how I feel about it, to be honest.
It was definitely different, but that isn't always a good thing. It's not really good enough to impress fans of actual spy novels, and it's not a good cozy mystery, either. I'd really only recommend this to hardcore Poirot fans and Agatha Christie completionists.
The Big Four is a sinister group of evil Moirartyesque masterminds who are poised to take over the world, and only Poirot is clever enough to stop them because no one else is even aware of their existence.
Silly Scotland Yard.
I will say that the best/goofiest thing about the story is that Poirot dons disguises and hones his spycraft with gadgets that shoot knockout gas. But the crowning moment is when he like he's in a telenovela!
I'm not sure how I feel about it, to be honest.
It was definitely different, but that isn't always a good thing. It's not really good enough to impress fans of actual spy novels, and it's not a good cozy mystery, either. I'd really only recommend this to hardcore Poirot fans and Agatha Christie completionists.
August 12, 2024
[3.8⭐] 𝙇𝙤𝙨 𝙘𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙤 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙨 es una novela detectivesca escrita por Agatha Christie en 1927. La historia está narrada desde el punto de vista de Hastings, quien relata cómo Poirot intenta desmantelar la organización secreta de "Los cuatro grandes".
Este libro me impactó profundamente; se diferencia por completo de otros títulos de Christie. Aquí, tanto Hastings como Poirot ponen sus vidas en peligro en numerosas ocasiones. Ambos toman decisiones extremadamente arriesgadas que podrían costarles la vida. Sin duda, es un caso muy ambicioso y peligroso, del que Poirot no puede dejar de obsesionarse. Además, este caso tiene un impacto global, a diferencia de otros de sus libros donde se tratan robos de objetos valiosos o asesinatos pasionales; en esta ocasión, se trata de un complot para crear dictaduras y dominar el mundo. El tono de esta novela es más oscuro y tenso que en otros libros. La escritora juega con la idea de una conspiración internacional, lo que le da un matiz más político y dramático a la narrativa.
Los antagonistas, "Los cuatro grandes", son una presencia amenazante y casi omnipotente que añade un nivel de tensión inusual en las novelas de Christie. Cada uno representa un tipo diferente de mal y la manera en que están organizados para actuar a escala mundial llega a ser un cambio notable respecto a los típicos crímenes más locales y personales que suele explorar la autora.
Por otro lado, no me convence del todo que en esta novela Poirot se equivoque tanto; entiendo que quieren mostrarlo más humano, pero me gusta más cuando es el ególatra infalible que nunca se equivoca.
A pesar de esto, sigue siendo una historia interesante al alejarse de lo "común". La trama está bien construida, pero es necesario prestar mucha atención a toda la información que se proporciona, ya que, como siempre, Christie ofrece todos los datos necesarios sin incluir detalles superfluos (todo es relevante). Además, es una historia que debe considerarse en una escala más amplia (económica, política y social). Menciono esto porque leí varias reseñas que señalaban que esta historia es más difícil de entender que otras.
Finalmente, puedo decir que 𝙇𝙤𝙨 𝙘𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙤 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙨 es una obra que rompe con los patrones de otras novelas de Christie. Es una historia más compleja, con un impacto a escala mundial. Además, en este libro vemos a un Poirot mucho más humano, que se equivoca repetidamente, incluso poniendo su vida en peligro. Sin embargo, siento que esta novela no me gustó tanto como otras, ya que se pierde un poco la esencia de Hércules Poirot.
Este libro me impactó profundamente; se diferencia por completo de otros títulos de Christie. Aquí, tanto Hastings como Poirot ponen sus vidas en peligro en numerosas ocasiones. Ambos toman decisiones extremadamente arriesgadas que podrían costarles la vida. Sin duda, es un caso muy ambicioso y peligroso, del que Poirot no puede dejar de obsesionarse. Además, este caso tiene un impacto global, a diferencia de otros de sus libros donde se tratan robos de objetos valiosos o asesinatos pasionales; en esta ocasión, se trata de un complot para crear dictaduras y dominar el mundo. El tono de esta novela es más oscuro y tenso que en otros libros. La escritora juega con la idea de una conspiración internacional, lo que le da un matiz más político y dramático a la narrativa.
Los antagonistas, "Los cuatro grandes", son una presencia amenazante y casi omnipotente que añade un nivel de tensión inusual en las novelas de Christie. Cada uno representa un tipo diferente de mal y la manera en que están organizados para actuar a escala mundial llega a ser un cambio notable respecto a los típicos crímenes más locales y personales que suele explorar la autora.
Por otro lado, no me convence del todo que en esta novela Poirot se equivoque tanto; entiendo que quieren mostrarlo más humano, pero me gusta más cuando es el ególatra infalible que nunca se equivoca.
A pesar de esto, sigue siendo una historia interesante al alejarse de lo "común". La trama está bien construida, pero es necesario prestar mucha atención a toda la información que se proporciona, ya que, como siempre, Christie ofrece todos los datos necesarios sin incluir detalles superfluos (todo es relevante). Además, es una historia que debe considerarse en una escala más amplia (económica, política y social). Menciono esto porque leí varias reseñas que señalaban que esta historia es más difícil de entender que otras.
Finalmente, puedo decir que 𝙇𝙤𝙨 𝙘𝙪𝙖𝙩𝙧𝙤 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙨 es una obra que rompe con los patrones de otras novelas de Christie. Es una historia más compleja, con un impacto a escala mundial. Además, en este libro vemos a un Poirot mucho más humano, que se equivoca repetidamente, incluso poniendo su vida en peligro. Sin embargo, siento que esta novela no me gustó tanto como otras, ya que se pierde un poco la esencia de Hércules Poirot.
June 17, 2008
This is possibly the silliest book Christie ever wrote. It's full of Trilateral Commission conspiracy theories, evil scientists developing powerful beams that can wreak untold damage, and a hidden fortress inside a mountain. Yes, really. The only thing it lacked was sharks with fricking lasers attached to their heads.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 15, 2018
Now apparently (allegedly ?) this book was a "mash-up" of short stories that ended up as a novel, and some people have criticised the book for that very fact. Personally if I hadn't been told this "fact" I wouldn't have guessed, although, it is set out as a series of little mysteries. I quite liked this format as I lived with the progression of the overall storyline, as Hastings and Poirot battled the Big Four through a series of adventures.
Strangely I had never read this book before, I don't know how I missed it, but I really enjoyed it. And it brings me up to date with "Jessica's" challenge.
I think I've written this review back to front as I'm now talking about the book. I am surprised that this is only Hercule Poirot Number 5, it just seemed that Poirot was old (ish) and Hastings was still living in Argentina, which I thought happened late on in their relationship. But that was all just my impression.
All said and done it was a very enjoyable read (and yes I still "see" David Suchet and Hugh Fraser, and always will)
Strangely I had never read this book before, I don't know how I missed it, but I really enjoyed it. And it brings me up to date with "Jessica's" challenge.
I think I've written this review back to front as I'm now talking about the book. I am surprised that this is only Hercule Poirot Number 5, it just seemed that Poirot was old (ish) and Hastings was still living in Argentina, which I thought happened late on in their relationship. But that was all just my impression.
All said and done it was a very enjoyable read (and yes I still "see" David Suchet and Hugh Fraser, and always will)
November 25, 2020
3.8 ⭐, porque não é um 3.5, mas também não é um 4.
June 10, 2018
This novel was published in 1927. It follows, “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd,” and it also followed Christie’s notorious eleven day disappearance; an event which haunted her all her life. Devastated by the death of her mother, and the breakdown of her marriage, her brother in law suggested that she re-work some short stories, previously published in “The Sketch,” an American magazine. Due to the publicity surrounding her disappearance, “The Big Four,” was a huge success – much more so than, “The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.” However, despite this, the critical acclaim for Roger Ackroyd has grown (quite rightly), while, “The Big Four,” has been criticised as being disjointed. Robert Barnard, for example, stated that it was, “cobbled together,” “demeaning to Poirot,” and “pretty dreadful.”
Despite these criticisms, though, “The Big Four,” is, to my mind, a lot of fun and showed just how good Christie was under pressure. This is more thriller than mystery and it may have been, “cobbled together,” from different short stories, but it has a lot to delight fans. It begins with Hastings returning from Argentina, on a surprise visit; only to discover that Poirot is about to leave the country. However, Poirot’s journey is delayed by a mysterious stranger and, before long, Poirot and Hastings are embroiled in trying to uncover the Big Four – a criminal gang responsible for illegal activities worldwide.
What follows is non-stop action, as Hastings and Poirot follow leads, investigate murders, find themselves in danger and do what they can to discover the identity of these criminal masterminds. The relationship between Poirot and Hastings is both warm and humorous. I listened to the Audible version of this, read by Hugh Fraser, who played Hastings in the television series and I enjoyed his narration. Yes, sometimes the plot gets a bit silly, but I loved the real sense of affection that Poirot displays for his friend, Hastings loyalty and the brief appearances of Japp. Although it isn’t Christie’s best, it is better than most author’s could have come up with. Sadly, it is one of only two Poirot novels which has no dedication, possibly showing how alone, or dispirited, she felt at that time. Even at such a low point, she created a fun, fast-moving novel, with a lot of recommend it to Poirot fans and, as such, it is certainly worth reading.
Despite these criticisms, though, “The Big Four,” is, to my mind, a lot of fun and showed just how good Christie was under pressure. This is more thriller than mystery and it may have been, “cobbled together,” from different short stories, but it has a lot to delight fans. It begins with Hastings returning from Argentina, on a surprise visit; only to discover that Poirot is about to leave the country. However, Poirot’s journey is delayed by a mysterious stranger and, before long, Poirot and Hastings are embroiled in trying to uncover the Big Four – a criminal gang responsible for illegal activities worldwide.
What follows is non-stop action, as Hastings and Poirot follow leads, investigate murders, find themselves in danger and do what they can to discover the identity of these criminal masterminds. The relationship between Poirot and Hastings is both warm and humorous. I listened to the Audible version of this, read by Hugh Fraser, who played Hastings in the television series and I enjoyed his narration. Yes, sometimes the plot gets a bit silly, but I loved the real sense of affection that Poirot displays for his friend, Hastings loyalty and the brief appearances of Japp. Although it isn’t Christie’s best, it is better than most author’s could have come up with. Sadly, it is one of only two Poirot novels which has no dedication, possibly showing how alone, or dispirited, she felt at that time. Even at such a low point, she created a fun, fast-moving novel, with a lot of recommend it to Poirot fans and, as such, it is certainly worth reading.
April 3, 2021
‘But Poirot— why?’
This is possibly the most appropriate quotation I can choose to describe the book.
The Big Four has one of the silliest plots of Christie's books which is based on Poirot and Hastings engaging in international crime and espionage - much in the same way that Holmes and Watson do,just in a more believable way. Where Holmes is reserved enough to carry off disguises and under-cover work, Poirot's flamboyance has him stick out like a sore thumb all over the place, and Christie's attempts at making us believe that Hastings, or indeed anyone else, does not recognise him are just ludicrous.
The book was written in 1927 and is the first of Christie's novels that show her making an attempt at writing an espionage / crime thriller with an international setting. As ludicrous as this book is, it is still better than some of the other attempts that were to follow (I'm looking at you Passenger to Frankfurt!), but it is surprising that the book did not turn readers off Christie altogether.
Not only does the plot not hold any water, the writing is just unbelievably bad - culminating in an ending that is just ... wow, so ridiculous. Apparently, Dame Agatha got stuck and basically just hit the big red button. That is all I'm going to say about that (just in case someone really wants to read the book).
For the rest, ... Oh, boy. How many times can Hasting's get knocked out? Or knocked around by Poirot?
Seriously, for many parts of the book, I rooted for Hasting's shoving Poirot off a cliff.
This is possibly the most appropriate quotation I can choose to describe the book.
The Big Four has one of the silliest plots of Christie's books which is based on Poirot and Hastings engaging in international crime and espionage - much in the same way that Holmes and Watson do,just in a more believable way. Where Holmes is reserved enough to carry off disguises and under-cover work, Poirot's flamboyance has him stick out like a sore thumb all over the place, and Christie's attempts at making us believe that Hastings, or indeed anyone else, does not recognise him are just ludicrous.
The book was written in 1927 and is the first of Christie's novels that show her making an attempt at writing an espionage / crime thriller with an international setting. As ludicrous as this book is, it is still better than some of the other attempts that were to follow (I'm looking at you Passenger to Frankfurt!), but it is surprising that the book did not turn readers off Christie altogether.
Not only does the plot not hold any water, the writing is just unbelievably bad - culminating in an ending that is just ... wow, so ridiculous. Apparently, Dame Agatha got stuck and basically just hit the big red button. That is all I'm going to say about that (just in case someone really wants to read the book).
For the rest, ... Oh, boy. How many times can Hasting's get knocked out? Or knocked around by Poirot?
Seriously, for many parts of the book, I rooted for Hasting's shoving Poirot off a cliff.
January 6, 2024
Poirot learns that there’s an international organization of four people who are seeking global domination. They are called “The Big Four.” And Poirot intends to unmask all four of them.
To truly enjoy this book for what it is, you need to know why this book was published in the first place. During this time, Agatha Christie lost her mother and saw her first marriage fall apart. With the help of her brother-in-law, Christie revised already written stand alone short stories into a full length Poirot book. This was done for her mental health, to give her the time she needed to recover from the blows she took in her personal life. Unfortunately, it does feel like some stand alone short stories that are hastily stitched together with a very loose thread. It just doesn’t always feel like a cohesive story. Agatha Christie also quickly realized this book would not be up to par and thus forced herself to write The Mystery of the Blue Train.
There are a few things that keep me from rating this book higher. First of all, it’s not actually a murder mystery story like you’d expect from a Poirot novel. It’s much more a cozy spy thriller. Second, Poirot doesn’t always feel like himself. Third, the antagonists known as the big four are disappointing. The less said about them the better to be honest. Fourth, I have so many unanswered questions.
But there are some things to enjoy and appreciate in this novel. The secret organization pulling all the strings in the shadows is a popular trope. It’s just that the execution of this conspiracy theory concept is a bit flawed. It’s also quite refreshing to see another side of Poirot. Here he has to avoid traps of the big four and set traps of his own to catch them. Though the execution of it could have been done better. I also quite like the idea of having small episodic adventures with an overarching plot to keep things interesting. Though again, the execution could have been done better.
Overall, if you’re new to Poirot you really shouldn’t start with this one. But it’s definitely a unique Poirot novel.
To truly enjoy this book for what it is, you need to know why this book was published in the first place. During this time, Agatha Christie lost her mother and saw her first marriage fall apart. With the help of her brother-in-law, Christie revised already written stand alone short stories into a full length Poirot book. This was done for her mental health, to give her the time she needed to recover from the blows she took in her personal life. Unfortunately, it does feel like some stand alone short stories that are hastily stitched together with a very loose thread. It just doesn’t always feel like a cohesive story. Agatha Christie also quickly realized this book would not be up to par and thus forced herself to write The Mystery of the Blue Train.
There are a few things that keep me from rating this book higher. First of all, it’s not actually a murder mystery story like you’d expect from a Poirot novel. It’s much more a cozy spy thriller. Second, Poirot doesn’t always feel like himself. Third, the antagonists known as the big four are disappointing. The less said about them the better to be honest. Fourth, I have so many unanswered questions.
But there are some things to enjoy and appreciate in this novel. The secret organization pulling all the strings in the shadows is a popular trope. It’s just that the execution of this conspiracy theory concept is a bit flawed. It’s also quite refreshing to see another side of Poirot. Here he has to avoid traps of the big four and set traps of his own to catch them. Though the execution of it could have been done better. I also quite like the idea of having small episodic adventures with an overarching plot to keep things interesting. Though again, the execution could have been done better.
Overall, if you’re new to Poirot you really shouldn’t start with this one. But it’s definitely a unique Poirot novel.
November 14, 2023
Eh, this one was alright. The Big Four is definitely a different sort of Hercule Poirot novel, as Poirot and Captain Hastings find themselves up against an international cabal of supervillains called The Big Four. It was decently entertaining, but I really missed the usual Poirot format involving English manor houses and scheming relatives. In a way, it almost reminded me of a spoof of a Sherlock Holmes story.
But, still, it's a Hercule Poirot novel and it's worth a read if you're invested in the series. It certainly lacks the genius of its predecessor, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but it's amusing enough if you don't take it too seriously. And Hastings is as bumbling and clueless as ever, so some things never change.
But, still, it's a Hercule Poirot novel and it's worth a read if you're invested in the series. It certainly lacks the genius of its predecessor, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, but it's amusing enough if you don't take it too seriously. And Hastings is as bumbling and clueless as ever, so some things never change.
July 5, 2017
The big four (Hercule Poirot #5), 1927, Agatha Christie
The Big Four is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on 27 January 1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Inspector (later, Chief Inspector) Japp. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and six pence and the US edition at $2.00.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: هجدهم سپتامبر سال 2011 میلادی
عنوان: چهار غول بزرگ؛ آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: مجتبی عبدالله نژاد؛ تهران، هرمس، کتابهای کارآگاه، 1390؛ در 220 ص، شابک: 9789643637699؛ موضوع: داستانهای کارآگاهی و پلیسی از نویسندگان انگلیسی - قرن 20 م
اگر کتاب را خوانده اید و میخواهید بخوانید، ادامه ی این نگاشته را نخوانید. عنوان: چهار قدرت بزرگ؛ را در جاهای دیگر به جای چهار غول بزرگ برگزیده اند؛ یک رمان جنایی اثر بانو آگاتا کریستی ست که در آن هرکول پوآرو و آرتور هستینگز نقش دارند. این کتاب نخستین بار در انگلستان توسط انتشارات ویلیام کولینز و در بیست و هفتم ژآنویه سال 1827 میلادیمنتشر شد و در همان سال در آمریکا. قیمت نسخه انگلیسی آن هفت شلینگ و شش پنی بود. و در آمریکا $2.00. سبک این رمان با دیگر کارهای آگاتا کریتسی متفاوت بوده و چند جنایت که توسط یک سازمان بزرگ روی میدهد را روایت میکند. داست��ن از چند قتل تشکیل میشود که همگی کار یک سازمان مخوف به نام چهار قدرت بزرگ هستند؛ که چهار شخصیت اصلی دارند: یک چینی، یک زن دانشمند فرانسوی، یک ثروتمند آمریکایی، و یک بازیگر تئاتر؛ که قتلها به عهده اوست. انگار داستان را لو دادم. ا. شربیانی
The Big Four is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on 27 January 1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Inspector (later, Chief Inspector) Japp. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and six pence and the US edition at $2.00.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش: هجدهم سپتامبر سال 2011 میلادی
عنوان: چهار غول بزرگ؛ آگاتا کریستی؛ مترجم: مجتبی عبدالله نژاد؛ تهران، هرمس، کتابهای کارآگاه، 1390؛ در 220 ص، شابک: 9789643637699؛ موضوع: داستانهای کارآگاهی و پلیسی از نویسندگان انگلیسی - قرن 20 م
اگر کتاب را خوانده اید و میخواهید بخوانید، ادامه ی این نگاشته را نخوانید. عنوان: چهار قدرت بزرگ؛ را در جاهای دیگر به جای چهار غول بزرگ برگزیده اند؛ یک رمان جنایی اثر بانو آگاتا کریستی ست که در آن هرکول پوآرو و آرتور هستینگز نقش دارند. این کتاب نخستین بار در انگلستان توسط انتشارات ویلیام کولینز و در بیست و هفتم ژآنویه سال 1827 میلادیمنتشر شد و در همان سال در آمریکا. قیمت نسخه انگلیسی آن هفت شلینگ و شش پنی بود. و در آمریکا $2.00. سبک این رمان با دیگر کارهای آگاتا کریتسی متفاوت بوده و چند جنایت که توسط یک سازمان بزرگ روی میدهد را روایت میکند. داست��ن از چند قتل تشکیل میشود که همگی کار یک سازمان مخوف به نام چهار قدرت بزرگ هستند؛ که چهار شخصیت اصلی دارند: یک چینی، یک زن دانشمند فرانسوی، یک ثروتمند آمریکایی، و یک بازیگر تئاتر؛ که قتلها به عهده اوست. انگار داستان را لو دادم. ا. شربیانی
March 11, 2020
This feels like Agatha Christie's ode to Sherlock Holmes. The story is told through the 'Watson' character, a friend of Poirot and we see how amazed and blundering he is compared to Poirot. The villain in this story is a crime syndicate called the Big 4 and they are supposed to be super villains. Each of the 4 come from different countries.
Poriot must bring down this hidden cabal that governments don't believe exists. The story is solid, it simply doesn't feel original. I do enjoy reading about Poirot and I want to read more of her books about this detective. He certainly thinks highly of himself.
This is one of Agatha's earlier works and I think she grows as an author. It's a good story.
Poriot must bring down this hidden cabal that governments don't believe exists. The story is solid, it simply doesn't feel original. I do enjoy reading about Poirot and I want to read more of her books about this detective. He certainly thinks highly of himself.
This is one of Agatha's earlier works and I think she grows as an author. It's a good story.
January 20, 2018
What the hell did I just read?
See that rating? That's a one star rating. Had you asked me a week ago I would have said that Christie did not write one star books. Sure some are of much lesser quality, but one star seems rather much. Had this book been written by some other author with some other character it would have possibly been entertainingly bad enough to receive two stars. Here it is an insult to the characters and a bit of a train wreck.
This is bad... like so bad that if feels like it was written by someone with a vague notion of the Poirot cast of characters, but unfamiliar with what the books were actually like. The plot follows Hercule Poirot as he deals with a group of super-criminals hellbent on world domination and using super-science (not to mention a master of disguise). These super-criminals known as the Big Four are even fronted by a Chinese Mastermind.
To say this book is a product of its time is both an understatement and also baffling as it is so utterly bizarre that it doesn't really feel appropriate for any time save for possibly an alternate timeline where Poirot was perhaps a comic book character.
Seriously, there is a line in the book, and I am quoting here, that goes: "Yes, you are both in the trap - the trap of the Big Four!" This is not Christie dialogue, this is bad comic book dialogue.
You know it's bad when Hastings' makes more sense than any of the other characters with his initial disbelief of the situation. Hell, my usual issues with Hastings were mostly dismissed as not only did he seem completely natural in this bizzaro world we were presented, but he also came off as a borderline voice of reason at times.
This is just such a surreal book. It reminded me somewhat of those old RKO serial films like Flash Gordon and Zombies of the Stratosphere (Yes, that last one is real, and featured Leonard Nimoy in an early role) where the characters are always placed in a ridiculous situation that they manage to get out of just in the nick of time, with increasingly silly plots that become tiresome to keep track of from a logical standpoint. This is what Poirot would have been like as adapted in such a format.
This is a book with over 30 named characters who come and go in a matter of pages. As for the mysteries (and yes, there are many in here) I kept feeling like I was missing clues as Poirot would make sudden announcements and logic leaps. As I continued reading, I began to suspect that poor plotting was the real culprit. A theory I stand by now that it is all over.
This book is so mind-bogglingly bad that I had to do some research, trying to find why it even exists, as in the well ordered world of Hercule Poirot, this book has no place. From what I could gather from a couple of different websites, Christie was in desperate need of money after her divorce. Espionage stories were "in" at the time and the novel was created from a reworked collection of short stories. Christie was apparently of much the same opinion about the book as I was as she is quoted to have referred to it as “that rotten book,” of which I must say she is far too kind.
An abysmal 1/5 stars. Not recommended to anyone save those trying to read all of Christie's novels or perhaps those who want to read what would happen if Ed Wood had tried his hand at Poirot.
See that rating? That's a one star rating. Had you asked me a week ago I would have said that Christie did not write one star books. Sure some are of much lesser quality, but one star seems rather much. Had this book been written by some other author with some other character it would have possibly been entertainingly bad enough to receive two stars. Here it is an insult to the characters and a bit of a train wreck.
This is bad... like so bad that if feels like it was written by someone with a vague notion of the Poirot cast of characters, but unfamiliar with what the books were actually like. The plot follows Hercule Poirot as he deals with a group of super-criminals hellbent on world domination and using super-science (not to mention a master of disguise). These super-criminals known as the Big Four are even fronted by a Chinese Mastermind.
To say this book is a product of its time is both an understatement and also baffling as it is so utterly bizarre that it doesn't really feel appropriate for any time save for possibly an alternate timeline where Poirot was perhaps a comic book character.
Seriously, there is a line in the book, and I am quoting here, that goes: "Yes, you are both in the trap - the trap of the Big Four!" This is not Christie dialogue, this is bad comic book dialogue.
You know it's bad when Hastings' makes more sense than any of the other characters with his initial disbelief of the situation. Hell, my usual issues with Hastings were mostly dismissed as not only did he seem completely natural in this bizzaro world we were presented, but he also came off as a borderline voice of reason at times.
This is just such a surreal book. It reminded me somewhat of those old RKO serial films like Flash Gordon and Zombies of the Stratosphere (Yes, that last one is real, and featured Leonard Nimoy in an early role) where the characters are always placed in a ridiculous situation that they manage to get out of just in the nick of time, with increasingly silly plots that become tiresome to keep track of from a logical standpoint. This is what Poirot would have been like as adapted in such a format.
This is a book with over 30 named characters who come and go in a matter of pages. As for the mysteries (and yes, there are many in here) I kept feeling like I was missing clues as Poirot would make sudden announcements and logic leaps. As I continued reading, I began to suspect that poor plotting was the real culprit. A theory I stand by now that it is all over.
This book is so mind-bogglingly bad that I had to do some research, trying to find why it even exists, as in the well ordered world of Hercule Poirot, this book has no place. From what I could gather from a couple of different websites, Christie was in desperate need of money after her divorce. Espionage stories were "in" at the time and the novel was created from a reworked collection of short stories. Christie was apparently of much the same opinion about the book as I was as she is quoted to have referred to it as “that rotten book,” of which I must say she is far too kind.
An abysmal 1/5 stars. Not recommended to anyone save those trying to read all of Christie's novels or perhaps those who want to read what would happen if Ed Wood had tried his hand at Poirot.
August 15, 2023
❄️يروي لنا هيستنغز أحداث هذه الرواية التي تبدأ برسالة تم إرسالها للعزيز بوارو وقد جذبت اهتمامه بسبب وصول رجل إلي بيته مصاب بحالة ذعر شديدة ولا يقول غير جملة "الأربعة الكبار ،المدمر" تركه بوارو في رعاية الطبيب الساكن بجواره وذهب ليلحق القطار المتجه إلي سفينته ليبدأ رحلته إلي البرازيل إثر محتوي تلك الرسالة وقد ذكر أيضا في هذه الرسالة اسم الأربعة الكبار ولكن بوارو أدرك الأمر ونزل من القطار ورجع إلي منزله مسرعا فوجد الزائر الغري�� ميتا بالسم كانت الرسالة تتحدث عن مجموعة مكونة من ٤ أفراد يقودون الشغب والثورات وخلف اغتيالات الشخصيات المؤثرة في العالم ويطورون سلاحا ذا تأثيرات مهولة يستطيع إحداث زلازل وهؤلاء الأربعة هم :
رقم 1 رجل صيني وهو العقل المدبر للمجموعة وأشد رجال الشرق ذكاء .
ورقم 2 وهو ملياردير أمريكي .
رقم 3 إمرأة فرنسية .
رقم 4 الملقب بالمدمر ويعتبر اليد الباطشة للمجموعة كما أنه خبير بل ومتمرس بشدة في التنكر وفي استخدام المكياج .
يقبل بوارو تحديهم له ويحاول بجد إنهاء تلك المجموعة وإضافتها إلي تاريخ إنتصاراته الحافل .
❄️هل الحقيقة تقبع فيما نراه وهل كل ما نراه أمامنا هو الحقيقة وهل يمكن للخديعة أن تتنكر بلباس الحقيقة ؟
❄️طريقة السرد ممتعة وسلسة كالعادة بل ومشوقة فأنت تتعاطي جرعات كبيرة من الغموض المثير لكل خلية من خلاياك الرمادية يا عزيزي .
October 28, 2020
5 stars plus , one of her best
August 1, 2020
De verdad que no sé qué podría decir de Agatha Christie que no hubiera dicho ya, sin duda era una escritora fuera de serie.
Este libro lo he disfrutado de principio a fin, para empezar, tiene un argumento bastante inteligente, sin contar que es compleja, una gran conspiración mundial, por supuesto, nuestro buen Poirot en algunos momentos pierde sus batallas y creo que eso es lo que más me ha gustado, que estos personajes llamados los cuatro grandes han puesto en jaque la audacia e inteligencia de Poirot ha puesto en relevancia la humanidad del personaje, lo ha vuelto más cercano de lo que ya era.
Es verdad que la trama es tan compleja que podría uno perderse entre tanta investigación de asesinatos, intentos de secuestro, secuestros y demás, me parece incluso que este libro bien podría tener una segunda parte porque a pesar de que se resuelve han quedado algunos cabos sueltos.
Pero más allá de la parte policiaca y una buena trama de intriga, lo que más me gusta cuando leo estos libros es que es inevitable soltar alguna carcajada con los comentarios mordaces que hace Poirot por aquí o por allá, igualmente la no me canso de la personalidad vanidosa de Poirot, es realmente delicioso leer a Agatha.
Nada más que decir, a pesar de que he leído muchos libros ya de esta autora, me faltan por leer muchos más de los que tenga leídos, tengo que decir que este ha sido uno de los que más me ha gustado.
Maravillosa como siempre Agatha
Este libro lo he disfrutado de principio a fin, para empezar, tiene un argumento bastante inteligente, sin contar que es compleja, una gran conspiración mundial, por supuesto, nuestro buen Poirot en algunos momentos pierde sus batallas y creo que eso es lo que más me ha gustado, que estos personajes llamados los cuatro grandes han puesto en jaque la audacia e inteligencia de Poirot ha puesto en relevancia la humanidad del personaje, lo ha vuelto más cercano de lo que ya era.
Es verdad que la trama es tan compleja que podría uno perderse entre tanta investigación de asesinatos, intentos de secuestro, secuestros y demás, me parece incluso que este libro bien podría tener una segunda parte porque a pesar de que se resuelve han quedado algunos cabos sueltos.
Pero más allá de la parte policiaca y una buena trama de intriga, lo que más me gusta cuando leo estos libros es que es inevitable soltar alguna carcajada con los comentarios mordaces que hace Poirot por aquí o por allá, igualmente la no me canso de la personalidad vanidosa de Poirot, es realmente delicioso leer a Agatha.
Nada más que decir, a pesar de que he leído muchos libros ya de esta autora, me faltan por leer muchos más de los que tenga leídos, tengo que decir que este ha sido uno de los que más me ha gustado.
Maravillosa como siempre Agatha
October 21, 2024
2 Stars. Rarely do I not revel in a Christie novel featuring Hercule Poirot. Here's one - unstructured, tied together with feathers, and most importantly, the premise is totally unrealistic! As explained by Poirot, an international conspiracy led by four extraordinary villains is planning world domination. He asserts that he and Hastings are the ones to stop them and says, "From their [secret] headquarters, the leaders of the organization will issue by wireless [radio] their orders to their followers who are numbered by thousands in every country, [and ..] the dictators of the world will emerge." I was incredulous that such a rational intellect as Poirot could espouse such stupidity. It reminded me of more recent new world order conspiracy theories concerning the Illuminati, the Jewish infiltration of western governments, or the older one about Freemasonry. All crazy. Only after reading did I discover what Christie had done. She loosely tied together 12 short stories which first appeared weekly in 'Sketch' in 1924 into a themed novel in 1927. A mish-mash which didn't work. But some are tantalizing; I will seek each of them out and report back! (Se2020/Mar2024)
September 3, 2024
Labor Day truly marks the end of summer. Today I sent two girls back to school and a third starts at home tomorrow. This is one of the rare days on the calendar where my husband, whichever of the kids are at home, and myself are off on the same day (the other two days are Memorial Day and Xmas unless someone takes a personal day). We observed Labor Day by sitting on the couch, him watching videos and me reading. I can’t read something too deep when he is home so I decided to read my book for the Read Christie challenge at the beginning of the month this time around. I have been reading Dame Christie on and off for thirty or so years. My parents enjoy the Poirot videos on A&E starring David Suchet, so the Belgian sleuth is the one I have read most often. This year has been about filling in the gaps from Christie’s entire body of work, stand alones, other sleuths, etc; however, Poirot has always been my favorite, his charm exudes when he tells people to use their little grey cells as he twirls his moustaches. On a lazy day I wanted to return to a favorite literary character of mine. I turned to the first book of his that I hadn’t read yet, and, surprisingly, I was in for fast paced fun.
Most readers’ first introduction to Hercule Poirot comes in the form of Murder on the Orient Express. In this tenth book in the series, Poirot travels leisurely back to England from the Middle East on the fabled train. Readers find out that Poirot is retired and the trip is supposed to be a vacation until it is not. If one would look at the list of Poirot’s cases in order, they would see that his first case was the murder of Roger Ackroyd. Looking back, when readers meet Poirot for the first time, this case is a straightforward one, which over time become commonplace for the Belgian. Over time, those who choose to employ the retired Poirot in lieu of Scotland Yard, refer to him as the great Inspector Poirot. Every sleuth, real or imagined, solves one case that is the case of a lifetime. I had always thought that for Poirot, that case took place on the orient express; however, by that point, he had retired. What case was the case of Poirot’s lifetime. That case of cases for him was titled The Big Four, the fifth case featuring the detective in his long career. I rarely check the blurb but I found out after the fact that Christie originally wrote this book as a series of magazine articles in 1927. Not a fan of short stories, had I known that these were originally in that format, I would have skipped it, depriving myself of one of the better Poirot cases I have read in awhile. The Big Four is not a gentry or lady employing Poirot but a fast paced case of international espionage, a case where Poirot would have to utilize every one of his little grey cells. In essence, a case out of Poirot’s ordinary that it had me on my toes.
My family is eagerly awaiting the announcement of the next James Bond actor and movie. Little that I know that I would be reading a Bond style case in a Poirot mystery. By writing short stories, Christie had to write constant action. Many readers sarcastically noted that Christie must have watched a Bond film and stole the premise for a new Poirot case. I would have thought that myself had she wrote this later in Poirot’s career after Bond had already been introduced to the world. The 1960s was a time where the world was a powder key and a senior statesman Poirot turned spy would fit. The issue is that this is an early case at an equally thrilling time, the roaring 1920s. Christie thought up the idea of an international spy ring long before Ian Fleming. At the time, with each installment a cliff hanger, readers must have been eagerly waiting to see what Poirot would do next. Would there be action or thinking or both? The premise is that Captain Hastings, Poirot’s bumbling sidekick, has returned from Argentina to see to business, but he had to see Poirot first. While the friends caught up on times past- Ackroyd, Lord Edgeware- Poirot receives a message notifying him that one Abe Ryland desires his presence, disappointed that Poirot himself did not journey to South America to see to his own matters. Something doesn’t fit. One thing leads to another, Hastings places himself at Poirot’s service just like old times, and the Belgian notes that they are up against a group called the Big 4.
Even though this case occurs during the interwar years, all is not good in the world. The world is moving toward a depression but millionaires like the American Ryland exist and want to rule in anarchy. Ryland allies himself with Chinese mastermind Lin Chang Yen and French scientist Madame Olivier, the successor to the Curies in terms of brains and fame. She had been working with radium and appears to have harnessed nuclear reactions long before they made an appearance in the real world. The three ally themself with a fourth member who changes his appearance at each turn in his attempt to outsmart his adversaries. Although this takes place before the Cold War, the Russians are involved as well, as though Christie foresaw that would take place in the world ten years later. These are the masterminds that Poirot is up against, and a lesser mind would have perished early in the case. That is the beauty of Christie writing this as a magazine serial. She created ten pages as she went along, making the Big 4 more sinister as she developed characters. If certain characters or network took on the appearance of Bond villains, perhaps it was Fleming who used the Big 4 and their network as the basis for Spectre. One never knows, and with all parties long past, we never will. Poirot is still the brains in terms of staying a step or two ahead of the anarchists, and he himself never went on high speed cases the way Bond later did, but my employing his grey cells, he kept readers on their toes, wondering where the Big 4 would strike next, and would Poirot intervene before it was too late.
With Labor Day all but over, I am finishing up the day with baseball. The marker to me means that summer is over. My husband wore his white dress hat for the last time this past weekend. Although in my mind summer is still here until baseball is over, the calendar tells me otherwise. I spent this last day of the season curled up on the couch with an Agatha Christie. Rather than the cozy style mystery that I am accustomed to, I engaged in a wild ride of international espionage. As I am a huge fan of both Bond and and Mission Impossible, I am not one to complain when Dame Christie decides to step out of her comfort zone. In her later cases featuring Hercule Poirot, the writer knew the sleuth so well that she could have wrapped up the action in a few chapters. Prior to his long run in retirement, the Belgian sleuth needed a signature moment on which to frame his career. Poirot solved his case of cases when up against the Big 4. A case like this shows me why Dame Christie was the Queen of Crime. She wrote a diverse body of work, even within the cannon of one sleuth. For those who did not appreciate the brilliance of Hercule Poirot or Christie, they should after reading The Big Four. While Murder on the Orient Express will always be my favorite case because it introduced me to Poirot, I think I found a new favored case of his in The Big Four. It is uncovering new favorites like these that lead me to the Read Christie challenge in the first place, and I hope the last few selections of the year are just as thrilling.
4.5 stars
Most readers’ first introduction to Hercule Poirot comes in the form of Murder on the Orient Express. In this tenth book in the series, Poirot travels leisurely back to England from the Middle East on the fabled train. Readers find out that Poirot is retired and the trip is supposed to be a vacation until it is not. If one would look at the list of Poirot’s cases in order, they would see that his first case was the murder of Roger Ackroyd. Looking back, when readers meet Poirot for the first time, this case is a straightforward one, which over time become commonplace for the Belgian. Over time, those who choose to employ the retired Poirot in lieu of Scotland Yard, refer to him as the great Inspector Poirot. Every sleuth, real or imagined, solves one case that is the case of a lifetime. I had always thought that for Poirot, that case took place on the orient express; however, by that point, he had retired. What case was the case of Poirot’s lifetime. That case of cases for him was titled The Big Four, the fifth case featuring the detective in his long career. I rarely check the blurb but I found out after the fact that Christie originally wrote this book as a series of magazine articles in 1927. Not a fan of short stories, had I known that these were originally in that format, I would have skipped it, depriving myself of one of the better Poirot cases I have read in awhile. The Big Four is not a gentry or lady employing Poirot but a fast paced case of international espionage, a case where Poirot would have to utilize every one of his little grey cells. In essence, a case out of Poirot’s ordinary that it had me on my toes.
My family is eagerly awaiting the announcement of the next James Bond actor and movie. Little that I know that I would be reading a Bond style case in a Poirot mystery. By writing short stories, Christie had to write constant action. Many readers sarcastically noted that Christie must have watched a Bond film and stole the premise for a new Poirot case. I would have thought that myself had she wrote this later in Poirot’s career after Bond had already been introduced to the world. The 1960s was a time where the world was a powder key and a senior statesman Poirot turned spy would fit. The issue is that this is an early case at an equally thrilling time, the roaring 1920s. Christie thought up the idea of an international spy ring long before Ian Fleming. At the time, with each installment a cliff hanger, readers must have been eagerly waiting to see what Poirot would do next. Would there be action or thinking or both? The premise is that Captain Hastings, Poirot’s bumbling sidekick, has returned from Argentina to see to business, but he had to see Poirot first. While the friends caught up on times past- Ackroyd, Lord Edgeware- Poirot receives a message notifying him that one Abe Ryland desires his presence, disappointed that Poirot himself did not journey to South America to see to his own matters. Something doesn’t fit. One thing leads to another, Hastings places himself at Poirot’s service just like old times, and the Belgian notes that they are up against a group called the Big 4.
Even though this case occurs during the interwar years, all is not good in the world. The world is moving toward a depression but millionaires like the American Ryland exist and want to rule in anarchy. Ryland allies himself with Chinese mastermind Lin Chang Yen and French scientist Madame Olivier, the successor to the Curies in terms of brains and fame. She had been working with radium and appears to have harnessed nuclear reactions long before they made an appearance in the real world. The three ally themself with a fourth member who changes his appearance at each turn in his attempt to outsmart his adversaries. Although this takes place before the Cold War, the Russians are involved as well, as though Christie foresaw that would take place in the world ten years later. These are the masterminds that Poirot is up against, and a lesser mind would have perished early in the case. That is the beauty of Christie writing this as a magazine serial. She created ten pages as she went along, making the Big 4 more sinister as she developed characters. If certain characters or network took on the appearance of Bond villains, perhaps it was Fleming who used the Big 4 and their network as the basis for Spectre. One never knows, and with all parties long past, we never will. Poirot is still the brains in terms of staying a step or two ahead of the anarchists, and he himself never went on high speed cases the way Bond later did, but my employing his grey cells, he kept readers on their toes, wondering where the Big 4 would strike next, and would Poirot intervene before it was too late.
With Labor Day all but over, I am finishing up the day with baseball. The marker to me means that summer is over. My husband wore his white dress hat for the last time this past weekend. Although in my mind summer is still here until baseball is over, the calendar tells me otherwise. I spent this last day of the season curled up on the couch with an Agatha Christie. Rather than the cozy style mystery that I am accustomed to, I engaged in a wild ride of international espionage. As I am a huge fan of both Bond and and Mission Impossible, I am not one to complain when Dame Christie decides to step out of her comfort zone. In her later cases featuring Hercule Poirot, the writer knew the sleuth so well that she could have wrapped up the action in a few chapters. Prior to his long run in retirement, the Belgian sleuth needed a signature moment on which to frame his career. Poirot solved his case of cases when up against the Big 4. A case like this shows me why Dame Christie was the Queen of Crime. She wrote a diverse body of work, even within the cannon of one sleuth. For those who did not appreciate the brilliance of Hercule Poirot or Christie, they should after reading The Big Four. While Murder on the Orient Express will always be my favorite case because it introduced me to Poirot, I think I found a new favored case of his in The Big Four. It is uncovering new favorites like these that lead me to the Read Christie challenge in the first place, and I hope the last few selections of the year are just as thrilling.
4.5 stars
February 21, 2021
I started reading it with a fair bit of misgivings.I had seen plenty of one and two star reviews,but despite that,I bought it as I want to read all of Christie's books.
It is the story of a gang of four master criminals,intent on world domination.It is a thriller,rather than a typical Christie whodunit.
Christie's thrillers aren't as well plotted as her whodunits,and not all that plausible.But are they fun ? You bet they are.(They Came to Baghdad is another case in point).
Poirot doesn't just use his grey cells,he does plenty of leg work too.And he gets captured by the Big Four,more than once.And he even makes them believe he's dead.And does Poirot have a twin brother ?
On his part,Hastings has more things to do,than in the typical Poirot mystery.Poirot sends him in harm's way and he gets captured,too.He begins to have a high opinion of his own intelligence.But for all his efforts,Poirot tells him that it would be no great loss to the world,if he were to die.
This book was a lot of fun,all those negative reviews notwithstanding.
It is the story of a gang of four master criminals,intent on world domination.It is a thriller,rather than a typical Christie whodunit.
Christie's thrillers aren't as well plotted as her whodunits,and not all that plausible.But are they fun ? You bet they are.(They Came to Baghdad is another case in point).
Poirot doesn't just use his grey cells,he does plenty of leg work too.And he gets captured by the Big Four,more than once.And he even makes them believe he's dead.And does Poirot have a twin brother ?
On his part,Hastings has more things to do,than in the typical Poirot mystery.Poirot sends him in harm's way and he gets captured,too.He begins to have a high opinion of his own intelligence.But for all his efforts,Poirot tells him that it would be no great loss to the world,if he were to die.
This book was a lot of fun,all those negative reviews notwithstanding.
July 12, 2017
This book is a weird Hercule Poirot story. Not the usual mystery murder of a person from the upper class members of society. More like a thriller or a quicker pace mystery of Sherlock Holmes. What do you think about a story where Hercule Poirot against a crime organisation that aim for worldly power? If that premise is not bothering you, please proceed.
I could still give it a three star until the middle part. Alas, the ending is not so satisfying. Without spoiler, that's all I can say for now.
Not exactly don't like this novel, but it was pretty close to 1 star. If I am a devout for Van Dine rules, I would give this book 1 star. This novel definitely broke rule number 13.
(Yes yes, I know the author broke these rules several times. But usually the author broke the rule beautifully. If you know another novel that broke the rules worse than this novel, please inform me)
I could still give it a three star until the middle part. Alas, the ending is not so satisfying. Without spoiler, that's all I can say for now.
Not exactly don't like this novel, but it was pretty close to 1 star. If I am a devout for Van Dine rules, I would give this book 1 star. This novel definitely broke rule number 13.
(Yes yes, I know the author broke these rules several times. But usually the author broke the rule beautifully. If you know another novel that broke the rules worse than this novel, please inform me)
February 18, 2024
آگاتا کریستی یک نابغست.
هیچوقت نمیشه حدس زد ماجرا از چه قراره
ودراین کتاب کلی غافلگیرت میکنه.
هیچوقت نمیشه حدس زد ماجرا از چه قراره
ودراین کتاب کلی غافلگیرت میکنه.
December 26, 2024
„Великата четворка“ се оказа нестандартен, но много добър и интересен роман на Агата Кристи. Тя е съчетала заплетения к��иминален сюжет с елементи на глобален конспиративен трилър. В тази история е представила Поаро като доста арогантен тип, но въпреки това той си остава страхотен герой! Белгиецът и неговият помощник Хейстингс са въвлечени в сблъсък с мистериозна международна престъпна организация, наричана Великата четворка...
„Поаро обича да бъде загадъчен. Той ще се раздели с късчето информация чак в последния възможен момент.“
„Както обикновено, той ме бе държал в пълно неведение относно своите ходове, но аз подразбрах, че поддържа връзка с агенти от тайните служби в Индия, Китай и Русия и от неговите редки изблици на самовъзхвала заключих, че бе постигнал известен напредък в любимата си игра да разгадава мислите на своя враг.“
„Напомних му, че на един-два пъти нашите противници бяха тези, които получиха отличия за постигнати успехи в тази игра. Но трябваше да се досетя, че е невъзможно да се охлади възторга на Поаро от неговите собствени методи.“
„Поаро обича да бъде загадъчен. Той ще се раздели с късчето информация чак в последния възможен момент.“
„Както обикновено, той ме бе държал в пълно неведение относно своите ходове, но аз подразбрах, че поддържа връзка с агенти от тайните служби в Индия, Китай и Русия и от неговите редки изблици на самовъзхвала заключих, че бе постигнал известен напредък в любимата си игра да разгадава мислите на своя враг.“
„Напомних му, че на един-два пъти нашите противници бяха тези, които получиха отличия за постигнати успехи в тази игра. Но трябваше да се досетя, че е невъзможно да се охлади възторга на Поаро от неговите собствени методи.“
June 16, 2018
If you are looking into reading one Christie/Poirot book to check out what they are like, don't choose this one. This has to be one of Christie's worst efforts, a "departure," though only her fifth Poirot book. Maybe calling it an experiment would work, though that would be generous. I looked into background about the book and I learned that in this year Christie's mother died and she discovered her husband was having an affair, so their marriage was ending. She was as a result strapped for cash, and stressed out, unable to get a proper novel together, so her brother suggested she mash-up twelve stories she had written somehow into one novel. This is the result:
*Many forgettable characters, too many to keep track of. Bad idea.
*Four principal evil villains. Instead of one. And not linked in any way! It's not a series, it's a single novel. Bad idea.
*A complicated plot with a twist ending, of course, you expect that, but it's too complicated to care about, confusing, actually, and not that much of a surprise when it all works out.
*It's an international thriller, a world stage, versus the small intimate settings Poirot usually works in. Bad idea.
*The dreaded Hastings returns, alas,to further muddy the already murky water. Bad idea.
*We get to entertain these questions: Is Poirot dead?! Does he have a twin? Bad ideas.
I would say this is a pretty bad book, for her or anyone, but I would also say that she is still early in her career, she is trying out different things, she's experimenting, so I give her a break. Many of those things she tries in the book didn't work, but she is still working on developing that Poirot character here, and that is not a complete waste of time to watch, the master developing her craft.
*Many forgettable characters, too many to keep track of. Bad idea.
*Four principal evil villains. Instead of one. And not linked in any way! It's not a series, it's a single novel. Bad idea.
*A complicated plot with a twist ending, of course, you expect that, but it's too complicated to care about, confusing, actually, and not that much of a surprise when it all works out.
*It's an international thriller, a world stage, versus the small intimate settings Poirot usually works in. Bad idea.
*The dreaded Hastings returns, alas,to further muddy the already murky water. Bad idea.
*We get to entertain these questions: Is Poirot dead?! Does he have a twin? Bad ideas.
I would say this is a pretty bad book, for her or anyone, but I would also say that she is still early in her career, she is trying out different things, she's experimenting, so I give her a break. Many of those things she tries in the book didn't work, but she is still working on developing that Poirot character here, and that is not a complete waste of time to watch, the master developing her craft.
December 10, 2023
If you want to see Hercule Poirot in the shoes of either Sherlock Holmes or James Bond, The Big Four is one for you. For me, I don't want to see the eccentric little Belgian detective wearing any other's shoes but his own, so you can understand why I'm disappointed.
The Big Four is the odd man out in the Poirot series. It is not a murder-mystery story per se, although several murders occur in the continuance of the story. It is not even a mystery I would say, more like a spy story. The great Hercule Poirot is pitted against the biggest international criminal organization called the "The Big Four" which is creating unrest in the world. Poirot with his faithful friend Captain Hastings and the British and other governments backing him uncover them and leads them to their destruction. But it is not easy as is said. Poirot even had to feign his death to achieve his end.
The story is a little too fantastic and Agatha Christie, quite unusual to her character, has filled the story with a pack of absurd and nonsensical events. Yet, I can't say that the story was boring. On the contrary, it was still interesting in its absurdity. My disappointment is that this wasn't a murder-mystery story, the type with which I'm accustomed to connecting Poirot. It is me I know, but I don't want Poirot to be a "Hercules" and save the world, I prefer him as the intelligent detective who solves the baffling murder mysteries.
This installment is the 5th in the series and I took it up after reading the 37th because I realized that I've missed reading this and two others along the way. Now I feel, I should have left this alone.
The Big Four is the odd man out in the Poirot series. It is not a murder-mystery story per se, although several murders occur in the continuance of the story. It is not even a mystery I would say, more like a spy story. The great Hercule Poirot is pitted against the biggest international criminal organization called the "The Big Four" which is creating unrest in the world. Poirot with his faithful friend Captain Hastings and the British and other governments backing him uncover them and leads them to their destruction. But it is not easy as is said. Poirot even had to feign his death to achieve his end.
The story is a little too fantastic and Agatha Christie, quite unusual to her character, has filled the story with a pack of absurd and nonsensical events. Yet, I can't say that the story was boring. On the contrary, it was still interesting in its absurdity. My disappointment is that this wasn't a murder-mystery story, the type with which I'm accustomed to connecting Poirot. It is me I know, but I don't want Poirot to be a "Hercules" and save the world, I prefer him as the intelligent detective who solves the baffling murder mysteries.
This installment is the 5th in the series and I took it up after reading the 37th because I realized that I've missed reading this and two others along the way. Now I feel, I should have left this alone.
March 3, 2023
Though a decent mystery, this definitely isn't the author's best. If you're new to the works of Agatha Christie, I suggest trying one of her other whodunits instead.
January 2, 2017
2.5 stars
This being the 5th book in the Poirot series is very different from any other Poirot book or in fact different to any other Christie book that I have read till date.
Instead of a cozy setting of a house, village or hand few of suspicious people with multiple red herrings, this is about an International Gang - Big Four . This famous gang comprises of 4 people and we know the identity of one of the members right away.
We come to know the identity of the remaining members as and when the story progresses. There are multiple short stories in this book where Hercule Poirot faces the Big Four in different mind games.
"I had no suspicion- at least hardly any suspicion. Yes, but for my quick eyes, the eyes of a cat, Hercule Poirot might now be crushed out of existence- a terrible calamity?"
As usual we have Hastings as a loyal but sometimes naive, sometimes bumbling side-kick.
"How marvelous is my friend Hastings! He knows everything- but everything!"
This book at the start had very strong Sherlock Holmes- Dr.Watson vibes which turned into Bond movie vibes by the end.
Somehow, I am glad that Christie reverted to her cozy mystery in this series rather than continuing on this action packed international thriller as I definitely enjoyed her other books more than this.
But I still enjoyed Poirot and his little grey cells!
"Poirot has his virtues, but modesty is not one of them."
This being the 5th book in the Poirot series is very different from any other Poirot book or in fact different to any other Christie book that I have read till date.
Instead of a cozy setting of a house, village or hand few of suspicious people with multiple red herrings, this is about an International Gang - Big Four . This famous gang comprises of 4 people and we know the identity of one of the members right away.
We come to know the identity of the remaining members as and when the story progresses. There are multiple short stories in this book where Hercule Poirot faces the Big Four in different mind games.
"I had no suspicion- at least hardly any suspicion. Yes, but for my quick eyes, the eyes of a cat, Hercule Poirot might now be crushed out of existence- a terrible calamity?"
As usual we have Hastings as a loyal but sometimes naive, sometimes bumbling side-kick.
"How marvelous is my friend Hastings! He knows everything- but everything!"
This book at the start had very strong Sherlock Holmes- Dr.Watson vibes which turned into Bond movie vibes by the end.
Somehow, I am glad that Christie reverted to her cozy mystery in this series rather than continuing on this action packed international thriller as I definitely enjoyed her other books more than this.
But I still enjoyed Poirot and his little grey cells!
"Poirot has his virtues, but modesty is not one of them."
February 15, 2018
2.75 stars
Book #4 in my Agatha Christie Challenge
Disclaimer: My local library had a very old copy of this title and so I spent a lot of time trying to find the exact cover, so this edition while not exactly the cover of my copy is the correct publishing company and amount of pages.
Prior to beginning this read, I couldn't help but notice that several readers were less than thrilled about Hercule Poiriot in this conspiracy theory type mystery. Although I agree that it is far from the masterpieces that are And Then There Were None OR Murder on the Orient Express, it wasn't as terrible as I anticipated. If anything, the book didn't keep me as riveted to my seat as my previous three reads( the two aforementioned novels and a short story).
Book #4 in my Agatha Christie Challenge
Disclaimer: My local library had a very old copy of this title and so I spent a lot of time trying to find the exact cover, so this edition while not exactly the cover of my copy is the correct publishing company and amount of pages.
Prior to beginning this read, I couldn't help but notice that several readers were less than thrilled about Hercule Poiriot in this conspiracy theory type mystery. Although I agree that it is far from the masterpieces that are And Then There Were None OR Murder on the Orient Express, it wasn't as terrible as I anticipated. If anything, the book didn't keep me as riveted to my seat as my previous three reads( the two aforementioned novels and a short story).
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