Take a photo of a barcode or cover
3.29 AVERAGE
3.29 AVERAGE
challenging
inspiring
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
gotta be the worst poirot yet. i get that it was originally published serially which explains the choppy pacing and weird reveals but that doesn't make it enjoyable as a book. very racist at points. VERY heavy on hastings being annoying. i can respect agatha christie diving outside of the usual comfort zone of poirot solving a little intimate murder but tbh that's what i enjoy and that's what i want out of a poirot book. i dont care about this international crime ring! it just wasnt fun!
It's Hercule Poirot, what can I say. I love every story of Poirot and this one includes a fantastic twist.
I am really glad I chose to read some of the other reviews of this book when I was about 1/2 way through.
Personally, found the book improbable, redundant, and quite boring. Being the first AC book I've read in a number of years, I was about to give up on her completely until I read comments from others. I will read more, but this one... no. Definitely not.
Personally, found the book improbable, redundant, and quite boring. Being the first AC book I've read in a number of years, I was about to give up on her completely until I read comments from others. I will read more, but this one... no. Definitely not.
The way this book came together--a number of Poirot short stories--makes it one of the more structurally unusual of the Poirot novels. It's more episodic, less linear than the classic detective novel. Add to that it shifts mode from the usual detective story to more of an espionage story, with Poirot battling against a group of four super criminals (somewhere between the earlier Professor Moriarty and the villains from James Bond novels, which of course came later), and this is really quite unique among the Poirot novels. It's entertaining, if imperfect--it's not entirely successful in unifying the source stories into a totally cohesive, coherent whole, and the resolution is perhaps a bit rushed.
Once again, FUCK YOU GOODREADS for deleting my massive review. Long story short, agatha got racist, Hastings got interesting, and Hercule became a BEST FRIEND.
Agatha Christie didn't like her novel The Big Four.
Now that I've read it, I don't like it either.
I didn't know this while reading it but she owed her publisher a novel but her mother had recently passed away and her marriage broke out. She wasn't in the mood. So on the advice of friends she strung together some unpublished, unfinished short stories making modifications so they linked together.
It certainly explains the uneven feel to the tempo, and while the story doesn't make sense.
Now that I've read it, I don't like it either.
I didn't know this while reading it but she owed her publisher a novel but her mother had recently passed away and her marriage broke out. She wasn't in the mood. So on the advice of friends she strung together some unpublished, unfinished short stories making modifications so they linked together.
It certainly explains the uneven feel to the tempo, and while the story doesn't make sense.
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Poirot pulp? It's weird. I like pulp stories, and I like Agatha Christie, but this feels like a watered down version of both. It's like a Holmesian "Final Problem," but book length and kind of a mess. The villains are literally developing nukes and a death ray, but they're not exaggerated enough. The 20s big villains need big personality, like Dr. Mabuse. Thus, this ends up feeling like a very odd part of the canon.