From the Bookshelf of Reading the Detectives…

The Big Four (Hercule Poirot, #5)

Agatha Christie

Start date: July 1, 2025

Finish date: July 31, 2025

Discussion: Group Challenges

Why we're reading this: Next in our Poirot and Marple challenge
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Group Challenges

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) by Agatha Christie
By Susan · 16 posts · 18 views

last updated 6 hours, 11 min ago

* Sept 25: The Mystery of the Blue Train (1928) - SPOILER Thread
By Susan · 6 posts · 17 views

last updated Sep 11, 2025 09:26AM

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What Members Thought

Mar 08, 2019 Christine PNW rated it did not like it

This book is ranked at 65/66 in my definitive ranking of all 66 full length Agatha Christie mysteries.

The Big Four was published fairly early in Christie's career, in 1927, and stands in as the 4th full-length Poirot mystery. Agatha was still alternating between standard mystery and international espionage at this point in her career. In the Poirot canon, The Big Four is preceded by The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, two solid mysteries and one, ...more

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May 01, 2019 Jan C rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2019, hot-read

This isn't one of my favorites. But it is twisty and turny.

I started out reading it in a paperback but I think the print bothered my eyes. Discovered that I had it hiding on my Kindle. Donated my book to a charity sale.

A re-read for me. Maybe I liked it better the first time. ...more

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May 21, 2018 Teri-K rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-golden-age

I just couldn't get into this book, despite the excellent narration of Hugh Fraser. At first I thought it was my fault - I wasn't paying close enough attention or perhaps I was in the wrong mood. Eventually I decided it wasn't me, it was the book. I prefer Christie when she's writing about a specific place with a limited cast of people. I also think her best stories involve danger to a few people, or the need to find who killed a specific person. This book involves a global conspiracy, internati ...more

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Aug 12, 2018 Bev rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, mount-tbr-2018, bought-2016, vintage-mystery

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. The Big Four (1927) by Agatha Christie....or "Christie does Sax Rohmer complete with evil Chinese genius and secret society." Also--Poirot does a Sherlock Holmes on his dear friend Hastings and co. So, yeah. I read this one long ago and far away during my big Agatha Christie binge--from elementary school through junior high. And I thought it was pretty good--of course, I think evil geniuses trying to take over the world have a greater appeal to a younger mindset. And I didn't catch the parallel The Big Four (1927) by Agatha Christie....or "Christie does Sax Rohmer complete with evil Chinese genius and secret society." Also--Poirot does a Sherlock Holmes on his dear friend Hastings and co. So, yeah. I read this one long ago and far away during my big Agatha Christie binge--from elementary school through junior high. And I thought it was pretty good--of course, I think evil geniuses trying to take over the world have a greater appeal to a younger mindset. And I didn't catch the parallel to Holmes--with Poirot allowing his friends to think he was dead so he could work on catching the criminals.

This time around I found myself much less enthralled with Poirot taking on the secret society. I don't think Christie was at her best when she wrote thrillers, but I enjoy her thrillers more when they are stand-alones rather than inserting Poirot into the mix. There's still an element of fun in watching him track down the elusive Big Four and a bit of humor in the introduction of his brother Achilles. But I certainly can't give it the 3.5 stars my younger self handed out. ★★ and 1/2.

This book may not have had as great an appeal to my middle-aged self as it did to the younger me--but it is still WAY better than the Suchet production (keep in mind that I like Suchet as Poirot) and don't even get me started on the production of The Labours of Hercules (though I will talk about that in a minute...). I mean, megalomaniacs who want to take over the world make for good, over-the-top adventure when one is in the mood for it. But to take that and reduce it to the machinations of one guy who is out to impress a girl who rejected him several years ago? Seriously? I'm sorry, but no. Give me the honest to goodness evil geniuses any day.

And Labours of Hercules? They took an enjoyable series of short stories built around Poirot performing detective tasks in the mode of the tasks performed by Hercules smooshed several of them together (and left out others) to make a horrible mishmash whose point seemed to be to highlight Poirot's overweening pride, and to make the series even darker and more depressing. My little gray cells may not be all that, but even I knew immediately what an astoundingly bad idea it was for the guard to show the woman at the beginning the "secret" knock out in the open with a dozen or so people all around. And Poirot just stands there and watches her do it and didn't think a thing about it.

First posted on my blog My Reader's Block. Please request permission before reposting. Thanks. ...more

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Feb 27, 2020 Bev rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-mystery, mystery, vintage-mystery, audionovel, agatha-christie, thriller, suspense

I reread my own paper copy of this novel about two years ago (review at title link). At that time I also viewed the David Suchet version of the story. I won't rehash the plot here or reference my previous review--other than to say: Of these three recent experiences of Christie's excursion into the evil masterminds/thriller genre, I much prefer this audio version with Hugh Fraser narrating. Fraser does a terrific job managing all the different voices and accents--from Poirot's French to Russian a ...more

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Jan 09, 2021 Lillian rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mystery-vintage-golden-age, read-in-2021

This was another exceptional narration by Hugh Fraser. I know most Christie fans don't favor this as among their favorite Poirot novels. I think if one goes into it knowing it was originally written in serial form for a magazine it helps to understand the writing style. Sometimes the chapters have long periods of time between them. Each chapter is sometimes a mini mystery in and of itself. And sometimes Poirot and Hastings are in some very absurd situations. Many say it has a Sherlock Holmes fee ...more

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Sep 04, 2013 Bhavya Mathur rated it liked it

Shelves: mystery-thriller, kindle

This was very different from the usual Agatha Christie mysteries. Hercule Poirot not only has to use every single little grey cell but also do a lot more. This has the thrill of chase which is not very Christie-like.

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