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[edting]

4. The Big Four by Agatha Christie (1927)

This is more like a spy novel than a traditional whodunit. This early work finds Hercule Poirot acting like some low level James Bond, getting in and out of scrapes, risking his life, and fighting an international crime syndicate called The Big Four.

What I found most interesting about this book was its placement in time. 1927 is pretty early. Atomic power is seen as a looming disaster. The Big Four seek to control submarines and “aeroplanes” via wireless magnetic devices. Americans are given weird accents that make them sound like overgrown, boorish Brits. And Asians are casually referred to as “Chinaman,” “Heathen-Chinaman,” and “Chink.”

The book is not very good. AC must have learned early on to stay out of the spy novel genre.

-Ed