Reviews

The Big Four by Agatha Christie

lighthuis's review against another edition

mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

soeroe22's review against another edition

3.0

I was intrigued most of the time. It’s my first Agatha Christie read, and I’ll definitely read more of her books.

Some things just felt a bit off.

mollyadelman's review against another edition

4.0

god i love these little books so much

shmadsie's review against another edition

3.0

2.5. This was clearly trying to give Poirot a Morairty-esque adversary and while Four having the ability to disguise himself so expertly was pretty cool, his motives - and the motives of the Big Four themselves - weren't ever really elucidated. Control and chaos isn't really anything, y'know? And the ending felt utterly anticlimactic. I loved Poirot and Hastings in this book though so I can't say I didn't have fun with it, ha.

sarah_lamper's review against another edition

2.0

Woof. This was the hardest Poirot/Christie book to get through so far. It reads like a bunch of short stories half linked together. And Agatha Christie is unfortunately not very good at short stories. This weird international spy thriller was an interesting next step for Poirot, unfortunately it was also the wrong one. Hopefully we stay firmly in the murder mystery genre bc this definitely was not it.
An especially hard read when it comes right after The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, which is easily one of her best novels. Will be happy to move on from this one and read the next so I can get this bad taste out of my mouth. How disappointing :/

allthingsnerdy's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

fjette's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

Fun, lighthearted, easy

lireunmardi's review against another edition

2.0

C'est vraiment la première fois que je peine à terminer un Hercule Poirot.
Vraiment, je n'ai eu aucun intérêt pour cette enquête que j'ai trouvé très décousue.
Cela vient peut-être du contexte d'écriture, et du fait qu'Agatha Christie a réutilisé les intrigues de différentes parutions dans la presse pour tenter de faire une intrigue unique.
Ce n'est pas une réussite, comme dirait Hermione!

caraeferro's review against another edition

adventurous medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.5

Definitely my least favorite Christie so far. I know this comes with the territory of reading old novels but the racism in this one was particularly rampant. Also it was very disjointed which is the fault of it being 7 books put together. Just not my fave

mrsbooknerd's review against another edition

2.0

I read it, but I struggled. I prefer Poirot solving who killed the Vicar/Lord/Nosy neighbour cases, not big international thriller cases.

Also, Hastings is usually a bit slower than Poirot, but he was an imbecile in these stories, and it really annoyed me.