The Big Four

An emaciated scrawny man appears at the doorway of Hercule Poirot repeating the latter’s address in a continuous fashion. Poirot is meanwhile summoned by secretaries of Abe Rhyland, the American soap king. But he has his mind fixated on ‘The Big Four’. He reluctantly boards the train towards his next case when he siezes an opportunity to jump off the train. On the arrival of Poirot, the emaciated man is pronounced dead by the influence of Hydrocyanic acid. Bodies fall and some victims beg mercy from ‘The Big Four’. Their trail makes the duo run from pillar to post investigating chain of murders happening around the world.

“They have won the first trick; but they have failed in their plan to get me out of the way, and in the future they have to reckon with Hercule Poirot!”

We get to know many idiosyncrasies of Poirot. The way he chides Hastings to use his brains, to see with the eyes of the suspect, his self-praising mannerisms and the fact that he isn’t keen on removing his moustache even to infiltrate the enemy. I was again impressed with Poirot’s deductions and his keen knowledge of science.

To begin with the plot was intriguing, it had all the elements of suspense and mystery.
The novel is narrated by Captain Hastings who’s his trusted man and sidekick. Hastings keeps mulling his thoughts on his motherland, Argentina. Unlike other Christie novels, the perpetrators are revealed and there is a chase sequence that follows it. As the murders take place in various places revolving a slew of characters, it was difficult to keep pace with chain of events and remember the names of all the characters. But when the story changed its course, I was able to keep pace with the action sequences.

I felt this novel was more about knowing the Belgian Detective Poirot and understanding the camaraderie between him and Captain Hastings. A delightful Christie read indeed.