A review by cpjeanz
The Big Four by Agatha Christie

3.0

Another adventure with Poirot, and this one was something. The characters are still great, Poirot being the best, but the story was weird as many reviewers have said already. Hastings was far less annoying in this one, especially since he's married so no more weird and annoying interactions with the female characters in the book. I actually didn't mind the idea of Poirot fighting against an international crime group. But the execution was rather odd. Some moments felt great, and very inline with Poirot. Others however, felt out of place and just didn't feel realistic. What makes Poirot, and Christie for that matter, is the realistic crimes which have well drawn and real characters who aren't perfect. It's not necessarily about Poirot outsmarting some supremely intelligent criminal a la Moriarty. He learns about all the characters, even the things they don't want to reveal, and puts the pieces together to understand who was capable of the crime and how they did it. Here though, there was just random things happening with no real thread to the overall plot and characters who only exist in the background. The story just feels out of place.

Quick hits:
+ Poirot as usual, still such an engaging character.
+ Hastings played an actual Watson role and wasn't annoying.
+ There were moments which felt great and inline with the series.
- The plot was very up and down.
- The story felt out of place, and too out there.

Overall, this wasn't the best. The writing and main characters were great as usual, but the rest not so much. I know we return to form in the rest of the series, and I'll definitely be continuing.