The Big Four: Agatha Christie’s Poirot Against an International Criminal Organisation
The Big Four are an organised gang of criminals who pull the strings behind everything that happens in the world. In this Agatha Christie novel, Hercule Poirot is at the centre in both senses: he is the gang’s main target, and the one responsible for solving the case.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: The Big Four (1927)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 240 pages
Scope: Hercule Poirot novel; international thriller
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/0008164908 (ASIN 0008164908)
Poirot in the Crosshairs
The detective is the villains’ prime target, and so the risk he faces is far greater than in other cases. He is too clever, and the gang knows he is the only one capable of undoing its plans. Many schemes are designed to eliminate him, and he must take the risk and carry on with his investigation, with Captain Hastings at his side.
A Different Kind of Poirot
Rather than a single puzzle, the novel is a sequence of episodes, first published as linked stories, in which Poirot and Hastings chase a Chinese mastermind, an American millionaire, a French scientist and a mysterious assassin known as the Destroyer across Europe.
A Book Born of Crisis
The Big Four was put together in 1927, during the most difficult period of Christie’s life, after her mother’s death, the collapse of her marriage and her disappearance in late 1926. Unable to write a new novel, she reworked a series of linked Poirot stories that had appeared in The Sketch magazine in 1924, with help from her brother-in-law, Campbell Christie. That origin explains the book’s episodic structure, with each chapter almost a separate adventure.
Four Masterminds
The Big Four are Li Chang Yen, a Chinese political genius said to be the brain of the organisation; Abe Ryland, an American millionaire; Madame Olivier, a brilliant French scientist; and Number Four, "the Destroyer", a master of disguise who can turn up as anyone. Their aim is nothing less than world domination, a plot that owes much to the popular thrillers of the time, such as Sax Rohmer’s Fu Manchu stories, and that now feels dated, especially in its portrayal of the Chinese villain.
Achille Poirot
One of the book’s oddest and most entertaining touches is the appearance of Poirot’s twin brother, Achille, who is mentioned here for the first and only time. Readers will have to discover for themselves what part he plays in the story. Hastings, back from Argentina at the start, is at his most loyal and most bewildered, and the friendship between the two men is the emotional heart of the book.
Adaptations
The novel was adapted for Agatha Christie’s Poirot in 2013, in a version that changes a great deal and gives the story a more realistic twist.
Who Will Enjoy It
Completists and readers curious to see Poirot as an action hero; newcomers should start with one of the classic mysteries instead.
Poirot Out of His Element
Part of the book’s interest lies in seeing Poirot in a role he was never really designed for. Christie’s detective is at his best in a drawing room, analysing the psychology of a small group of suspects; here he is chasing a global conspiracy, dodging bombs and poison and travelling across Europe. The contrast shows, almost by accident, why her classic mysteries work so well, and why she soon returned to them. Within a few years she would write some of her greatest Poirot novels, including Peril at End House and Murder on the Orient Express.
Why Read It
It is closer to a spy thriller than to Christie’s classic mysteries, and it has an unusual, adventurous energy. A curiosity for Poirot fans who want to see him in a very different role.
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