The Big Four by Agatha Christie

The fifth outing for Hercule Poirot finds him facing a gang of master criminals, known as the Big Four. They’re spread around the globe and seek world domination. In their way stand Poirot and Captain Hastings, assisted by Japp from Scotland Yard at times.

Written in 1927, this novel has a plot more suited to James Bond, who followed forty years later. One of the Big Four, known as the Destroyer, is the master of disguise. He turns up at various locations in the UK, killing those who threaten the organisation. While Poirot seems always one step behind him, he’s learning all the time.

It’s a curious adventure that moves around Europe, testing and challenging the little grey cells or Poirot as he plots to bring the Big Four down and save the world. While written with the author’s customary style and ease, it’s quite different from anything else I’ve read by Christie, who seems to have let her imagination loose in this novel.

A curiosity, if nothing else, it’s an interesting, if implausible story that has all the necessary ingredients, but doesn’t quite work.

Description

A ruthless international cartel seeks world domination…

Framed in the doorway of Poirot’s bedroom stood an uninvited guest, coated from head to foot in dust. The man’s gaunt face stared for a moment, then he swayed and fell.

Who was he? Was he suffering from shock or just exhaustion? Above all, what was the significance of the figure 4, scribbled over and over again on a sheet of paper? Poirot finds himself plunged into a world of international intrigue, risking his life to uncover the truth about ‘Number Four’.