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obsidian_blue 's review for:
The Big Four
by Agatha Christie
For me to be disappointed with an Agatha Christie novel is saying a lot. The Big Four is the fifth book in the Hercule Poirot series that Agatha Christie wrote. I finished with all of the Miss Marple books and hope to finish all of the Poirot books in the order they should be read by next year.
This book was probably the toughest Christie book for me to finish. At first, I really did like the plot of this book. We have Hercule Poirot and Hastings back together again investigating the mysterious "Big Four". When the novel begins the gang was trying to lure Hercule Poirot out of the country so they could go about doing their machinations unimpeded. Of course Hercule Poirot sees through this (eventually) and he starts his investigation of the mysterious syndicate.
Unlike with previous Christie novels there is no clever gotcha moment with Hercule reasoning out who dun it. Earlier on Hercule figures out the identities of the 'Big Four'. This novel is just Hercule trying to catch one of them in the act in order to bring down the whole group.
This novel takes place over the course of at least 7-8 months. At one point in the story Hercule says to Hastings he has been back in London for six months and doesn't his wife miss him. I had to wonder that too.
For every step closer that Hercule gets to naming the 'Big Four' he is pushed back two steps. He is at times disbelieved by those in Scotland Yard and the UK government since it seems so surreal that four people would go about murdering and stealing and doing their best to bring the world government to their knees. That was the hardest part for me to swallow. How did these four people meet? Did they all decide yes anarchy is the way to go? You do find out why possibly number 3 wants the world brought to its knees and even number 1. However, number 2 and 4 make no sense and it would have been nice to gain some understanding of this group's mindset instead of yes we're evil.
During the course of the story we have Hercule becoming obsessed with number 4 of the syndicate and that is who most of the story focuses on. We do have interactions with number 2 and 3 but not number 1.
For some reason number 4 though knowing it is dangerous cannot help going after Hercule Poirot. Hercule tries to reason that all out with Hastings, but honestly it makes no sense.
When we do get to the final denouement the book ends with a whimper. It does help to know that this novel initially started off as eleven short stories which does show when you start going from chapter to chapter since it appears that sometimes we readers are missing key information.
Though it is important to read this novel in order to gain understanding in later books to plots or characters referenced from this one I would just recommend skimming it or borrowing it from the library. This is definitely not a top shelf Christie novel in my humble opinion. If you want to read a truly great Poirot novel I would stick with "Murder on the Orient Express" and "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd".
This book was probably the toughest Christie book for me to finish. At first, I really did like the plot of this book. We have Hercule Poirot and Hastings back together again investigating the mysterious "Big Four". When the novel begins the gang was trying to lure Hercule Poirot out of the country so they could go about doing their machinations unimpeded. Of course Hercule Poirot sees through this (eventually) and he starts his investigation of the mysterious syndicate.
Unlike with previous Christie novels there is no clever gotcha moment with Hercule reasoning out who dun it. Earlier on Hercule figures out the identities of the 'Big Four'. This novel is just Hercule trying to catch one of them in the act in order to bring down the whole group.
This novel takes place over the course of at least 7-8 months. At one point in the story Hercule says to Hastings he has been back in London for six months and doesn't his wife miss him. I had to wonder that too.
For every step closer that Hercule gets to naming the 'Big Four' he is pushed back two steps. He is at times disbelieved by those in Scotland Yard and the UK government since it seems so surreal that four people would go about murdering and stealing and doing their best to bring the world government to their knees. That was the hardest part for me to swallow. How did these four people meet? Did they all decide yes anarchy is the way to go? You do find out why possibly number 3 wants the world brought to its knees and even number 1. However, number 2 and 4 make no sense and it would have been nice to gain some understanding of this group's mindset instead of yes we're evil.
During the course of the story we have Hercule becoming obsessed with number 4 of the syndicate and that is who most of the story focuses on. We do have interactions with number 2 and 3 but not number 1.
For some reason number 4 though knowing it is dangerous cannot help going after Hercule Poirot. Hercule tries to reason that all out with Hastings, but honestly it makes no sense.
When we do get to the final denouement the book ends with a whimper. It does help to know that this novel initially started off as eleven short stories which does show when you start going from chapter to chapter since it appears that sometimes we readers are missing key information.
Though it is important to read this novel in order to gain understanding in later books to plots or characters referenced from this one I would just recommend skimming it or borrowing it from the library. This is definitely not a top shelf Christie novel in my humble opinion. If you want to read a truly great Poirot novel I would stick with "Murder on the Orient Express" and "The Murder of Roger Ackroyd".