[a:Agatha Christie|123715|Agatha Christie|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1321738793p2/123715.jpg] is one of my favorite writers, and I usually enjoy reading her books over and over. This is an exception.

In 1926, Christie was suffering from overwork, the death of her mother, and an unfaithful husband who wanted a divorce. She also staged a dramatic disappearance, probably to embarrass her erring husband. It resulted in a great deal of publicity as well.

In [b:An Autobiography|16301|An Autobiography|Agatha Christie|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1396228839s/16301.jpg|3038860] Christie stated that she had been unable to write a word since her mother's death. She was approaching a deadline and was short of money. Her brother-in-law, Campbell Christie, "...suggested that the last twelve stories published in "The Sketch" should be run together, so that they would have the appearance of a book." [b:The Big Four|16316|The Big Four (Hercule Poirot, #5)|Agatha Christie|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1372506728s/16316.jpg|721292] was the result. Not surprisingly, [b:The Big Four|16316|The Big Four (Hercule Poirot, #5)|Agatha Christie|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1372506728s/16316.jpg|721292] does not have the feel of a novel. It is choppy and jumps around quite a bit. Hastings makes an extended appearance and is even more tedious than usual. I honestly don't know how I finished this.

Hastings, who has married and settled down in Argentina, has come to visit his old friend. Poirot advises that he is going to do some investigating for the richest man in the world, Abe Ryland a/k/a "The American Soap King." A man stumbles into Poirot's apartment and passes out. Once they revive him, he writes the number four a dozen times, even time larger than the last. He then says, "Li Chang Yen," and tells Poirot and Hastings of the "Big Four" - Number One is Li Chang Yen, Number Two is an American, Number Three is a French woman, and Number Four is just "the destroyer." From then on, everything proceeds at a fast pace.

It's very obvious that [b:The Big Four|16316|The Big Four (Hercule Poirot, #5)|Agatha Christie|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1372506728s/16316.jpg|721292] is a lot of short stories strung together. Basically, Poirot investigates a series of cases and claims they are all linked to the Big Four. I was reminded of Nayland Smith always suspecting Fu Manchu in every single crime he investigated. Very convenient and not terribly believable. I found the very idea of the "Big Four" to be straight out of pulp magazines or comics - or possibly spy novels, though James Bond was many years in the future. Oh, and the mysterious Number Four, "the destroyer"? Very anticlimactic.

I carried away two things from this book - one, even Christie could write a bad novel, and two, Hastings is incredibly stupid. Seriously, how could he not know?


"This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force." (attributed to Dorothy Parker)