Brown Book Loft Blog

Agatha Christie is the undisputed queen of British crime and mystery writing and released many of her novels before World War II. She had a number of different characters that she used regularly, but the two best known and loved are Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. Agatha Christie The Big Four with Hercule Poirot is a slightly different book to many of her other crime books.

This book is quite different from other Agatha Christie novels because it is a book in four parts instead of being one single story about a crime. This book was published in 1927 after parts of it were serialized in Sketch Magazine.

The book opens with a regular Christie character Captain Hastings visiting Hercule Poirot to find that he is making preparations for a trip to the USA. Poirot has been offered a large sum of money by an American to travel there and he asks Hastings if he knows anything of the “Big Four”.

They are visited before Poirot departs by a character who tells them of the “Big Four” that one of the members is a Chinese mastermind, another a supposed American, a French femme fatale and the final member is known as the “destroyer”. Hastings and Poirot pretend to depart for their trip, but return to the apartment to find the man dead. This naturally prompts Poirot into investigative action.

The books takes the reader on the classic Christie roller coaster of plot twists and turns. It also features a cameo by Poirot’s twin brother before the story resolves itself in a manner entirely satisfying to the reader.

So if you want a book that is a real page turner and will keep you guessing until the end, then Agatha Christie the Big Four with Hercule Poirot is a great choice to make.

Agatha Christie books maintain their popularity around the globe many years after the demise of the queen of British mystery writers. Agatha Christie: The Big Four book is a compilation of four short stories featuring favorite detective Hercules Poirot.