The big Four

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Christie, Agatha	4-week checkout	Due 05-24-2024
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Mystery / Christie, Agatha	4-week checkout	Due 05-23-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / Mystery / Classic / Christie, Agatha	4-week checkout	Due 05-10-2024

Originally published: London: Collins, 1927.
They are formidable enemies in their own rights: a French scientist, an American millionaire, a brilliant Chinese gentleman, and a master of disguise. But together they are the Big Four, a partnership with one simple goal, murder. Hercule Poirot has never come up against an opponent so vicious, or so deadly.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

This one can be skipped submitted by Sara W on August 27, 2015, 12:41pm Agatha Christie's ingenious plots and exacting detectives are always a pleasure - but there's not much joy to be found in this Poirot outing. The enemy at hand is a gang of criminal masterminds whose shadowy presence threatens the safety and security of the world and its treasures. This is one of those times when Poirot pieces together dastardly doings from various places - a newspaper article, a seemingly-unrelated comment from an official, but in this story, this talent just serves to keep the mystery at a further distance. Most of the action happens off stage, and all of the solving happens in Poirot's little grey cells without much excitement for the reader. I'm a Poirot fan, but this entry is not just at the top of Christie's abilities.

Pretty good submitted by enano.1 on July 15, 2019, 4:54pm I believe that this is one of the books that can fit this category. The book was of an interesting plot, because it was made up of many mysteries within one big theme. Saying that, some of the events were placid and not very exciting. However, the finale was distinctively high in action, but I believe if felt a bit rushed. Overall a pretty good book, but not one of Agatha Christie's best.

A Fix up That Doesn't Fix Anything submitted by Meginator on June 12, 2021, 9:45am Content Note: This book includes racist depictions of, and terms for, Chinese people.

I have been making my way through the Poirot mysteries and really enjoying them, but this book fell completely and utterly flat, though it could admittedly make for an awesome movie. An obvious fix-up of individual short stories that, were they presented properly in lengthier form, would be as engrossing and entertaining as anything Christie cooks up, the novel swings for a proto-thriller cat-and-mouse game with world peace at stake (no, really) and...misses quite terribly. The overarching narrative felt superimposed and silly, and I raced to the end of the book without absorbing much of its contents because I was eager to get it behind me and get back to the good stuff. I commend Christie for trying to do something a little different with her star detective (who himself shines here despite the terrible plot), but this book simply doesn’t play to her strengths. I recommend this only if you’re looking to read deeply into what does, and does not, make crime fiction work, or if you’re a series/author completionist.