For those with a taste for
detective fiction, a
book by Agatha Christie is always a delight. Not without reason is she known as the Queen of Crime. Like all her other books, this one
keeps you engrossed from beginning to end. The theme is of a different type from that of her other novels in that this is not a tale of personal
Crime involving greed, jealousy or revenge. Nor are you kept wondering as to who is the real murderer. The motives here are more of a political nature and the culprits a
group of dedicated persons with a mission to overthrow the existing order of things. They are no small fries but highly intelligent and powerful people masquerading behind a facade of fame and prosperity. The group is identified fairly early as the Big Four, and they too make their presence felt through a subtle association of the number 4 with all their crimes and communications. Their precise identity, however, is revealed only in stages. What keeps you on tenterhooks is the battle of wits between Hercule Poirot (the famous Belgian detective so fond of using his 'little grey cells') and the Big Four. Despite all of Poirot's cleverness and vigilance, the latter succeed in committing one crime after another. But each such crime affords Poirot a clue to the Big Four's methods and identity, till at last he outmanouvres them and leads them to their destruction. Poirot's ingenuity and genius in seeing through
things and deriving logical conclusions from facts that others overlook, is manifest throughout. His friend and associate Captain Hastings figures prominently in the plot and is, in fact, the narrator of the story. A must-read book for fans of Christie and Poirot.
More reviews about the The Big Four