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alex2_0's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.0
vincederr's review against another edition
2.0
This was not good. Poirot is facing an international conspiracy masterminded by "The Big Four". Over a series of events and mysteries Poirot and Hastings keep coming up just short of revealing their foes' identity and thwarting them. This premise sounds interesting, so what are my issues.
Written originally as 12 short stories and then later given connective tissue and additional chapters the narrative feels disjointed. Sure there is an over arching story, but it just never felt cohesive. The Big Four elements I felt were preposterously ham-hocked into the short story chapters. The best chapters were the 6 or so additional ones.
The Big Four were not even close to believable. Look I get it, its Christie, don't take it too seriously. But at a bare minimum it has to make sense. This group of four are seemingly devoid of ideology or real end goal. We are vaguely told that they want to upend the social order and sow anarchy. But it leaves one to question, why would anarchy serve a scientist, former actor, and a billionaire? It just never made much sense to me and it didn't make sense that they kept antagonizing Poirot.
Lastly, I'll just say that the ending was unsatisfying. Unfortunately this is my least favorite Christie to date.
2.5 out of 5
Written originally as 12 short stories and then later given connective tissue and additional chapters the narrative feels disjointed. Sure there is an over arching story, but it just never felt cohesive. The Big Four elements I felt were preposterously ham-hocked into the short story chapters. The best chapters were the 6 or so additional ones.
The Big Four were not even close to believable. Look I get it, its Christie, don't take it too seriously. But at a bare minimum it has to make sense. This group of four are seemingly devoid of ideology or real end goal. We are vaguely told that they want to upend the social order and sow anarchy. But it leaves one to question, why would anarchy serve a scientist, former actor, and a billionaire? It just never made much sense to me and it didn't make sense that they kept antagonizing Poirot.
Lastly, I'll just say that the ending was unsatisfying. Unfortunately this is my least favorite Christie to date.
2.5 out of 5
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.
Some things just felt a bit off.
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 :/
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!
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!