The Big Four not a big success

I recently finished reading Agatha Christie’s The Big Four and I have to say that this is the first time I have actually been disappointed by one of her books. It is one of her earlier books, and one that was written while she was beholden to her first contract. She allegedly hated the contract, which underpaid her and forced her to write four subsequent books. Perhaps that spilled into her writing?

Plot summary

Hasting and Poirot meet when Hastings returns from South America, where he and his wife have been living. Poirot has become embroiled with an international gang of mega-crooks: The Big Four. Through a series of unlikely events, Hasting and Poirot must work to identify the Big Four and bring their world-dominating machinations to an end.

The Big Four felt a little forced

I enjoy an adventure, but this one didn’t quite appeal to me. It felt forced and sensationalist. Poirot and Hastings are constantly caught or tricked by the crooks, but manage to extricate themselves in frankly unlikely ways. The crooks themselves are gifted with unusual powers of intelligence, wealth or strength. I just found the book a little too unrealistic to get properly invested in.

‘Well, a constant stream of murders in posh country houses solved by an amaetur detective isn’t very realistic,’ I hear you say. Touche. But for all their improbability, I have always found Christie’s books to have an element of the human and real to them. She was good at sketching out characters who act in believable ways. The scenarios may be unlikely but they do not feel impossible. That’s where my dissatisfaction with The Big Four came in. Mega-crooks aiming for world domination through some undefined means is even more wildly improbable than someone murdering their wife to get hold of her money.

The storyline also didn’t suit Poirot, I felt. His character isn’t swashbuckling or violent, and prefers to think through crime in his precisely clean house. Some of his adventures felt a stretch, as if they didn’t really suit this otherwise consistent character. I find Christie’s other books are much more consistent with her famous detective’s true character.

However, not all is lost for this little book. Certainly, it was still enjoyable in it’s way. If you find straight up murder mysteries slow and want a bit more drama, this book may suit. Sadly for me, The Big Four was not a big success. Luckily, there are still a few more of her books to read in the 23 in 2023 challenge.