The Big Four by Agatha ChristieMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
A departure for the Poirot series, in that it's more in the vein of Edgar Wallace or Fu Manchu (complete with mysterious, sinister Chinese mastermind) than the classic Poirot setting of a country-house murder mystery. It's what's sometimes called a "fix-up," a number of short stories reworked into a novel, and that gives it an episodic feel, connected by an overarching set of adversaries; this means that the plot doesn't follow the usual rising action, climax, falling action shape as much as something planned as a novel from the start.
Hastings has been ranching in the Argentine with his wife "Cinderella" for a year and a half, and has come back to England for a planned couple of months on what is implied to be urgent business, but this is instantly dropped and not mentioned again when he connects back up with Poirot. He then spends nearly a year helping his old friend battle against the sinister conspiracy of the Big Four: the aforementioned Chinese mastermind, an American multi-millionaire, a French mad scientist, and a master of disguise and ruthless assassin. These four are attempting to destabilize the world in such a way that they can end up as dictators of it; they are behind various current revolutionary movements and labour troubles (because, of course, the idea that people who have genuine grievances with bad government and predatory management would organize themselves to oppose them is patently absurd).
I suspect that Hastings' ranch probably had its best year ever while he wasn't there mismanaging it, but that's just my prejudice. He continues to be remarkably dense, and resentful of this being pointed out, while Poirot continues to be intensely self-admiring and to come to correct conclusions on inadequate evidence. Poirot is forced to deceive not just his enemies, but his chief ally, because Hastings is too honest and would give the game away otherwise. Fortunately, he's trivially easy to deceive.
Part of Poirot's characterization here, which hasn't been as prominent previously, is that he never gets an English idiom or proverb quite correct, making him more of a "funny foreigner". The Chinese characters are mysterious and sinister. At times, the book approaches parody - of the suspense genre, of Sherlock Holmes (with the disguises and the (view spoiler)), and of Poirot and Hastings themselves. The conclusion is a classic over-the-top trope.
Hastings makes a couple of classic sexist and racist remarks (of the French scientist, who is a woman, that he would have thought that a male brain was required to do what she does; later, that he has never been able to tell "Chinamen" apart), but I view these as the author's characterization of Hastings as a particular kind of English idiot, not as her own prejudices. The idea that a sinister conspiracy was behind various current political problems... I'm unsure whether she believed that, as many people of her background did at the time, or just used the trope fictionally.
Where the author does definitely fall down is in a few mechanical issues. She dangles a modifier, comma-splices two sentences, and frequently - her abiding fault - doesn't end a question with a question mark, also in a couple of places ending sentences which aren't questions with question marks.
But does the book work as what it is, despite what it is not being in the usual vein? I think it does, even though its author called it "that rotten book". There were plenty of worse thriller/suspense novels written in the period. Part of the book's sales success was down to the publicity around Christie's still-unexplained disappearance and reappearance shortly before its publication, but I think it stands up against its contemporaries in the genre. It's not a great Poirot book - it's not a great book of any kind - but I found it enjoyable in its own terms.
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