The Big Four (original 1927; edition 1986)

A decent book that owes a lot to Arthur Conan Doyle. A lot. I prefer more character development than this, which is mainly a loose collection of short stories based around a central theme. Still, the relationship between Poirot and Hastings is well displayed. ( )

A bald and unconvincing narrative ...

... and no amount of corroborative detail could help it out.

I've just finished reading Agatha Christie's The Big Four. In short, don't bother.

Basically, it's Poirot v. SPECTRE. My willing suspension of disbelief got hanged by the neck until dead, dead, dead. Odd, given how much I enjoyed the other Poirot novels I've read. But then, I found a hint of why on the wikipedia page on the book - it was derived from a series of short stories Christie wrote for The Sketch magazine, and that shed some light on things. In general, I find her to be a better novelist than short story writer, and it could well be that cobbling a bunch of short stories together into a novel is not going to produce her best work.

Anyway, unlike most of her novels, I actually got the plot twists before they happened. And the secret lair not only had a self-destruct button, but it got used. I'll note in passing that the location isn't all that far from Reichenbach Falls, or Piz Gloria Still, by the time I was two thirds the way through the thing, I couldn't put it down until I was finished, so that part of her writing effect remained true to form.

Part of my mission to read all the Christie-books, this is a Poirot mystery. Here Hercule takes on a case which turns out to be of global importance. This makes this book somewhat different in style to the standard "a guy has been killed by poison in his hot chocolate" kind of story. Not one of my favourites by Christie, but still a worthwhile read. ( )

Poirot is up against a group of four expert criminals who attempt to lead him into a trap in their determination to cause international upheaval. Very well written and suspenseful. ( )

This was a bit James Bond-like, and a bit unbelievable, but a fun story nevertheless. Surely has inspired later works from James Bond to Dr Evil in Austen Powers, amongst countless others. ( )