Published: 1927
Genres: Novel, Adventure, Thriller, Suspense, Crime, Mystery
Rating: 4 out of 5
Review
The Big Four takes place over a rather vast time- more than six months, I think- and deals with a rather complicated plot. While I've come across several negative reviews about this book, I must say that I really admired this one. I liked the structure and style of The Big Four. I liked the overall story.
Captain Hastings travels from Argentine to England to meet his dear old friend Hercule Poirot. Poirot, however, is himself planning to go to South America in order to deal with a case that offers him a generous sum. While Poirot and Hastings are talking, a mysterious person appears at Poirot's residence, who is very sick and weak, and tells Poirot about The Big Four, which is, apparently, a vast criminal organization. The man tells Poirot about the four people who run in this organization. Very soon, while Poirot and Hastings are absent, the intruder dies, apparently murdered.
The Big Four, as Poirot tells, is a vast and powerful organization that plans to take over the world, that is planning to control the world and change the world in an adverse way. The four people who control the organization are: Number One, Li Cheng Yen, a Chinese man who is the head. Number 2, an American man. Number 3, a Frenchwoman. And there is the curious Number 4. It is Number 4 who repeatedly keeps meeting Poirot and Hastings, but every time with a different, genius disguise- disguises that are so genius that even Poirot has difficulty guessing who the person actually is.
Poirot decides that he will unravel the identity of the Big Four. He cancels his trip to South America. He takes a dangerous decision...
In this novel, Poirot takes the responsibility to solve several cases- and each case is, in some way or other, related to the Big Four. Poirot works to unravel the identities of Number 2, 3, and 4. Will Poirot be able to solve this huge problem? Will Poirot be able to save the world from such an incidence?
The novel is filled with wonderful adventures! Hastings narrates the adventures in a superb way. And the presence of Poirot is wonderful as well. The disguises of Number Four were also quite interesting. The novel has some interesting twists.
The novel is more a suspenseful adventure than a mystery. We see our two dear old characters, Poirot and Hastings, involved in dangerous adventures in order to unravel the Big Four. It also has some scares and a lot of suspense and thrills.
The organization, the Big Four, was itself very scary! As Hastings notes, the Big Four seems to have some ''superhuman'' qualities, as it comes to know about every actions and decisions of Poirot.
Overall, I really liked this adventure-filled novel.
4 out of 5
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