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A review by mijtje
The Big Four by Agatha Christie
adventurous
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
TL;DR
wtf
So this is a weird little book. It’s good to be aware that it’s a collection of short stories which together make up one longer story. This makes it a little too fast paced at times and it might feel like a weird, all-over-the-place book. Which it is. But hey, now you know the reason!
The weirdest part is the crossover between Hercule Poirot and James Bond. It has gadgets, disguises, evil geniuses and of course a world order that secretly controls everything. It’s still good old Poirot and his adorable friendship with the kind of stupid Hastings, but then packed into a really weird story.
The beginning especially is hard to get through. As someone on here described it very aptly: it read as a Hercule Poirot fanfiction. About halfway through it gets better, however. Still, very weird. I feel like I was sucked into a parallel universe for a moment where Agatha Christie wrote shitty spy novels. Good thing she decided not to.
It’s still Hercule Poirot and I love Hercule Poirot, so it’s hard to give a very low rating, but yeah. Read Christie’s other books instead.
wtf
So this is a weird little book. It’s good to be aware that it’s a collection of short stories which together make up one longer story. This makes it a little too fast paced at times and it might feel like a weird, all-over-the-place book. Which it is. But hey, now you know the reason!
The weirdest part is the crossover between Hercule Poirot and James Bond. It has gadgets, disguises, evil geniuses and of course a world order that secretly controls everything. It’s still good old Poirot and his adorable friendship with the kind of stupid Hastings, but then packed into a really weird story.
The beginning especially is hard to get through. As someone on here described it very aptly: it read as a Hercule Poirot fanfiction. About halfway through it gets better, however. Still, very weird. I feel like I was sucked into a parallel universe for a moment where Agatha Christie wrote shitty spy novels. Good thing she decided not to.
It’s still Hercule Poirot and I love Hercule Poirot, so it’s hard to give a very low rating, but yeah. Read Christie’s other books instead.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death and Racism
Since the book was published in 1927, there are some paragraphs that can be seen as racist towards Chinese people.