Second paragraph of third chapter:
“Mon ami,” he said, “if you wish you may wait in to put salt on the little bird’s tail, but for me I do not waste my time so.”
Well. I thought this was rubbish when I read it at thirteen, and I still think it’s rubbish now that I am almost 59. Poirot and Hastings become involved in an effort to uncover the “Big Four”, who are secretly running the world, or trying to take it over, or something. They include a stereotypical Chinese oligarch, a stereotypical American squillionaire, a French scientist who is in no way at all based on Marie Curie, and the mysterious fourth man, who is English and a master of disguise. We also have Hercule Poirot’s twin brother Achille, though (SPOILER for a book published 99 years ago) he turns out to be one of Poirot’s disguises.
Apparently this is a fix-up of a dozen individually published stories, and it shows; very episodic, with a corresponding lack of internal continuity. Every adventure sees the Big Four’s implausibly convoluted plans confronting Poirot’s even more implausibly convoluted plans. There is a comedic has-been actress who gets bumped off mercilessly. There is a grand explosion in Switzerland at the end. The basic concept is the same as The Secret Adversary from five years earlier, but not executed as well. Agatha Christie herself called this a “rotten book” and it is difficult to disagree with her. However, you can get The Big Four here.
Agatha Christie:
The Mysterious Affair at Styles | The Secret Adversary | The Murder on the Links | The Man in the Brown Suit | The Murder of Roger Ackroyd | The Big Four | The Mystery of the Blue Train | The Murder at the Vicarage | Murder on the Orient Express | The A.B.C. Murders | Murder in Mesopotamia | Cards on the Table | Death on the Nile | Appointment With Death | Hercule Poirot’s Christmas | And Then There Were None | Evil Under the Sun | The Body in the Library | Five Little Pigs | A Murder Is Announced | 4.50 from Paddington | Hallowe’en Party
