The Big Four (novel)

Plot summary

A man named Mayerling bursts into Hercule Poirot's bedroom and collapses on the floor. He keeps repeating Poirot's name and address while scribbling the number four over and over. Hastings jokingly calls it "The Mystery of the Big Four," which prompts the dying man to describe an international crime cartel. Its leaders are Number 1, a Chinese political mastermind named Li Chang Yen; Number 2, probably an American; Number 3, a Frenchwoman; and Number 4, known only as "the Destroyer." Mayerling dies soon after, and Poirot and Hastings begin their pursuit. The story then unfolds as a series of loosely connected episodes.

Poirot and Hastings consult an informant, John Ingles, who shows them a note from a fisherman asking for money to hide from the Big Four. They find the note's author, Mr. Jonathan Whalley, murdered by Number 4. Poirot learns the cartel has developed a wireless energy beam that can focus intense power on any location. A British scientist named Halliday was kidnapped while at a conference in France.

Visiting French scientist Madame Olivier, Poirot discovers she is Number 3. He also identifies American millionaire Abe Ryland as Number 2 and sends Hastings to spy on him. Investigating the death of Mr. Paynter in Worcestershire, Poirot finds that Paynter's doctor, Quentin, was actually Number 4, who killed him with an injection of yellow jasmine. Later, Inspector Japp reports the death of chess grandmaster Gilmour Wilson.

Poirot deduces that Number 4 impersonated a Russian refugee doctor named Savaronoff and murdered Wilson. Hastings is kidnapped by the Big Four, but Poirot rescues him. Finally, Poirot identifies Number 4 as an obscure character actor named Claude Darrell.

Characters

Hercule Poirot, the famous private investigator, having tired of his life in England and dealing with trivial matters, is tempted to move to Brazil after receiving a monetary offer too good to refuse. Arthur Hastings, Poirot's sidekick in two earlier novels and two short stories, briefly works as a secretary of Abe Ryland under the alias Arthur Nevill. Inspector Japp is an inspector of Scotland Yard. The multiethnic gang of four persons working towards world domination has a secret hideaway in a quarry of the Dolomites, owned by an Italian company that is a front for Abe Ryland.

The quarry conceals a vast subterranean base hollowed out in the heart of the mountain, from which they use wireless communications to transfer orders to thousands of followers. The characters comprise typical ethnic and national stereotypes of 1920s British fiction. Abe Ryland, Number Two, is the so-called American Soap King, stated to be richer than John D. Rockefeller and the richest man in the world. He attempts to hire Poirot and invites him to Rio de Janeiro, but Poirot declines.

Ryland dies when the hidden base explodes. Madame Olivier, Number Three, is a French woman scientist and a famous nuclear physicist and analytical chemist. Poirot suspects she has succeeded in liberating atomic energy and harnessing it to her purpose, using gamma rays emitted by radium to perfect a lethal weapon. She is a widow who used to work with her husband. She dies when the hidden base explodes.

Analysis

The Big Four breaks from the typical Hercule Poirot story. Instead of a manor house or rural setting with British gentry, the villains are an international criminal gang running a secret global organization. Their aim is to destroy human civilization, and they possess an unspecified scientific weapon—possibly related to gravity or nuclear power. Poirot himself calls this the greatest case of his life, claiming all others will seem minor by comparison, much like Sherlock Holmes said of his Moriarty encounter.

Here, Poirot does not hunt a single murderer; he must expose a supranational group of high-ranking individuals seeking world domination. The book reads like a work of secret history, likely inspired by World War I and the October Revolution, as it was probably written in 1924 or 1925. Its core idea involves hidden powers manipulating humanity and history. Some see it as Agatha Christie’s warning about real organizations doing the same.

Christie may not have been an objective historian; she belonged to British high society, which possibly gave her access to firsthand observers of world politics and secret affairs. In the interwar period, the war and revolution were still frequent topics. She might have learned of conspiratorial groups active at the time, at least those in the City of London.

Literary significance and reception

This novel was published a year after The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and was overshadowed by its predecessor. The Times Literary Supplement review of 3 February 1927 assumed the different style from its immediate predecessor was a deliberate ploy, stating that M. Poirot is in very good form in the latest series of adventures, and that the device which made 'Who killed Roger Ackroyd?' such a puzzling problem is one a writer cannot easily employ a second time.

The review noted the present story is not so much the clearing up of a mystery as a recital of Poirot's encounters with international crooks of almost unlimited power who seek to dominate the world. Hastings was described as 'dense as ever.' The New York Times Book Review of 2 October 1927 outlined the basics of the plot and stated Number Four remains a mystery almost to the end, making it more difficult for the detective to guard against attack and providing most of the thrills.

The Observer of 13 February 1927 did not expect originality when reading a book dealing with such themes, but admitted that Mrs Christie is far too adroit and accomplished a hand for that. The reviewer found the short, interpolated mysteries within the mystery much more interesting than the machinations of the 'Big Four' supermen, and called the conclusion 'pretentious' and failing to be impressive, summing up that the book has too many thrills and seeks to make up in details what it lacks in quality and consistency.

The Scotsman of 17 March 1927 said the activities of Poirot cannot be taken seriously as one takes Sherlock Holmes, and the book reads more like an exaggerated parody of popular detective fiction than a serious essay in the type, but provides plenty of fun for the reader prepared to be amused.