Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Big Four

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Big Four by Agatha Christie

9 reviews

chrisscorkscrew's review

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

One of my favourite comfort-read Christie’s. It’s not a classic murder mystery meant to be taken seriously, but instead it is one of Christie’s lurid thrillers.

It has an overblown plot about world domination, a cliffhanger in every chapter and is not meant to be taken seriously. It is just a fun ride, particularly if you seek out the audio version read by Hugh Fraser who wrings every last drop of indignation and horror out of the narrator, Captain Hastings.

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gillian_aftanas's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

1.75

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_izzi_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

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hannahcstocks's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

2.5

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prashiie's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

"It is a duel to the death, mon ami. You and I on the one side, the Big Four on the other."

After being reunited with Hastings, Poirot goes up against the toughest enemies he has faced till now. Every time it seems like he’s one step ahead of them, the Big Four proves him wrong. But Poirot doesn’t give up easily! I liked that this mystery wasn't easy to solve. Poirot really had to give his all and put his little grey cells to work.

The structure of the story was different compared to the other Poirot stories. Whilst the focus mainly lies on the Big Four, Poirot has many side investigations which all in turn seem to be connected to the Big Four.

I liked that there were references to Poirot’s previous cases. Poirot and Hastings have inside jokes about Inspector Giraud, the human foxhound, who appears in ‘Murder on the Links’, and Hastings’ soft spot for girls with auburn-coloured hair. This became evident when he proposed to Cynthia in ‘The Mysterious Affair at Styles’.

Also, there were many similarities with Sherlock Holmes! The Big Four reminded me of the criminal mastermind Moriarty.

During his struggle with Moriarty, Watson believed Holmes was dead and that is exactly how it went down with Hastings and Poirot in this story. Poirot additionally mentions that he has a brother who is as smart as Poirot and maybe even smarter if he wasn’t lazy. We eventually find out that Poirot made this up to confuse the Big Four, but still it is very similar to Holmes’ brother, Mycroft.

There were some parts that I didn’t like that much. First of all, it bothered me that an Asian character was referred to as ‘Chink’ and secondly, Hastings’ comment about women in science.

“It has always seemed to me extraordinary that a woman should go so far in the scientific world. I should have thought a purely masculine brain was needed for such work.”

But it didn’t bother me too much. The story is nearly 100 years old and it is not entirely fair to judge it by today’s standards.

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thequeeraunt's review against another edition

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mysterious relaxing slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Here's the thing about revisiting books originally published almost 100 years ago - you're going to find racism. There's going to be cringe-worthy language, slurs used in common speech, and some really dated stereotypes. Because of the nature of this particular mystery's antagonist(s), there are some unpleasant characterizations of people from China. I mention all of this at the beginning of my review because if casual racism is a deal-breaker for you, then nothing else I say about the novel will make it palatable.

Moving past the racist characterizations of Chinese people in The Big Four, this is one of the weaker Poirot mysteries I've read so far. Without giving away anything that may spoil the ending, I found that it wrapped up a little too neatly for my tastes. Obviously, that's part of the suspension of disbelief one agrees to when one is reading mysteries, but there were some fairly outrageous stunts pulled in The Big Four that felt like they would have been more at home in a modern international spy thriller than an Agatha Christie novel. In the previous Poirot cases, while the detective's skills are truly amazing, they don't stretch the limits of what I consider humanly possible.

I would hesitate to recommend this book to any reader. Either you are interested in reading Agatha Christie in spite of the language and racism, or you aren't. The Big Four certainly isn't where I would consider starting the Poirot series. I get the feeling that you don't necessarily need to read Poirot from beginning to end as you do with some series, so you could probably just skip this one altogether and move on.

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