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A review by carolsnotebook
The Big Four by Agatha Christie
2.0
I've read many of Agatha Christie's books over the years, she's one of my favorites, and I felt like reading a Poirot mystery, well listening to one actually. I chose poorly with The Big Four. Poirot is his usual dapper self, eccentric and fastidious. He's as vain as always, but with faithful Hastings as the narrator, he doesn't become overly-egocentric. Hastings humanizes him some, makes fun of his quirks and appreciates his friendship.
But the mystery here let me down. It's too big, but not big enough. The audio version, read by Hugh Fraser, comes in at only 5 hours and 33 minutes. There's just not enough room for that kind of world domination conspiracy, and even if it were, it's just too cartoonish, with the stereotypical criminals, the matermind Chinese man, the multimillionaire American, the brilliant French scientist and, and their assassin, the elusive "Number Four," and their secret meetings. The "twists and turns" are silly, unbelievable or both. It's not the smooth mystery, where Poirot works through everything using his "little grey cells," and then has a denoument scene at the end where he spells out the solution. Instead, it's more a series of episodes, each having some connection to the Big Four.
It's not up to Christie's usual work.
But the mystery here let me down. It's too big, but not big enough. The audio version, read by Hugh Fraser, comes in at only 5 hours and 33 minutes. There's just not enough room for that kind of world domination conspiracy, and even if it were, it's just too cartoonish, with the stereotypical criminals, the matermind Chinese man, the multimillionaire American, the brilliant French scientist and, and their assassin, the elusive "Number Four," and their secret meetings. The "twists and turns" are silly, unbelievable or both. It's not the smooth mystery, where Poirot works through everything using his "little grey cells," and then has a denoument scene at the end where he spells out the solution. Instead, it's more a series of episodes, each having some connection to the Big Four.
It's not up to Christie's usual work.