Rating: 
Summary: More parody than mystery
Review: "The Big Four" is an Agatha Christie mystery where Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings are on the trail of an evil organization whose ultimate goal is world domination through chaos.Poirot and Hastings are bested by the Big Four at every turn, falling into traps where their death was supposed to be certain. Poirot becomes obsessed by this organization, much like another famous fictional detective and his sworn archnemesis. The ending seems to only have Poirot save face after being outsmarted by this group many times over. In the end, this book was good not for its plot, which you can see in any espionage book or film, but for the seemingly eerie similarities in Christie's Big Four and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty. All it needed was Poirot playing the violin!
Rating:
Summary: More parody than mystery
Review: "The Big Four" is an Agatha Christie mystery where Hercule Poirot and Captain Hastings are on the trail of an evil organization whose ultimate goal is world domination through chaos. Poirot and Hastings are bested by the Big Four at every turn, falling into traps where their death was supposed to be certain. Poirot becomes obsessed by this organization, much like another famous fictional detective and his sworn archnemesis. The ending seems to only have Poirot save face after being outsmarted by this group many times over. In the end, this book was good not for its plot, which you can see in any espionage book or film, but for the seemingly eerie similarities in Christie's Big Four and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Professor Moriarty. All it needed was Poirot playing the violin!
Rating: 
Summary: Agatha Christie Falters
Review: Agatha Christie was out of her element in the spy thriller, The Big Four, in which the villains are fomenting nothing short of world wide conquest. And moving Hercule Poirot away from country houses was not a good idea as he traipses uncharateristically all over the continent. His famous gray cells seem a little slow as well as all the puzzles set before him will be readily apparent to the reader long before the famous detective figures it out. The saving grave of this otherwise dismal entry into the Poirot library is the return of Hastings and the development of the relationship between Poirot and himself. A mystery to be skipped except for the die hard Christie fans.
Rating: 
Summary: My Second Favorite Poirot Novel, lots of action
Review: I have read all of the Poirot stories; and I find that this is my favorite, second only to Curtain. I like it because it is very different than the other books of the series. Poirot is much more a man of action, and the killer stays ahead of Poirot for most of this book. (Poirot is usually more in control early on in his cases.) There is also much more danger with Poirot being called upon more than once to save Hastings' life.
This story showcases Hastings' innocence and trusting nature more than any other book of the series. Because of Hastings' personality, Poirot has to resort to tricking him to effectively solve the case. The creation of Poirot's twin brother is one of the most interesting factors in this tale. Agatha Christie tricks her readers a bit too, but finally lets us in on the truth at the end.
Rating:
Summary: One of my favorites
Review: I have read many Christie mysteries and Hercule Poirot is one of my favorite fictional detectives. He really shines in this book. It's different than many of Christie's other novels because there is a real sense of danger for Poirot and Hastings. I do agree with another reviewer in that it is best to have read a few stories with Hastings and Poirot before this one to truly appreciate their dynamic. Don't pass this one up, it's a keeper!
Rating: 
Summary: Not her best mystery...
Review: I'm a big fan of Hercule Poirot's mysteries. I agree with otherreviewers, though, that this book does not reflect Ms. Christie'susual style. In fact, I didn't enjoy this book nearly as much as her other Poirot novels, so if any of you haven't read Agatha Christie books before, DO NOT start with this one. Get Five Little Pigs instead. By the way, to another reviewer, Hastings meets his wife to be in Murder on the Links. Anyway, read Big Four after you've read more of Christie's books.
Rating:
Summary: Conspiracy yes, mystery no
Review: I've read only a few novels from the Hercule Poirot series, but this did not appear to be of the mystery genre. There was suspense and a dab of surprise (anyone would see that surprise coming). So if you're like me, a person who wants to know what happens and tries to solve the mystery yourself, don't bother with this book. Details are not given to you for you to be able to do that.
The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is much better.
Rating:
Summary: James Bond-esque Sillyness
Review: Nearly all the Detection Club rules are broken in this, Christie's worst book for some fifty years. Poirot faces a group of super-criminals: a fiendish Oriental (a la Fu Manchu), an American millionaire, a mad scientist ("mad-mad-mad with the madness of genius!"), and "the destroyer," who are behind all the world problems: "the world-wide unrest, the labour troubles that beset every nation, and the revolutions that break out in some," as well as Lenin and Trotsky, "mere puppets whose every action was dictated by another's brain." Their ultimate goal is, of course, to use a laser beam to take over the world. The bulk of the book concerns various loosely related cases (some of which, such as "A Chess Problem," are ingenious enough), but too many episodes are appropriate to a shilling shocker: e.g., Hastings, having refused a fiendish Oriental devil's order to lure Poirot into a trap on pain of death (with typical English understatement, "that Chinese devil meant business, I was sure of that. It was goodbye to the good old world."), capitulates when he learns that his wife will die by the Seventy Lingering Deaths. And so it gets sillier and sillier as it goes on, until, Poirot having died and come back from the dead as an imaginary twin brother, it ends with the Big Four blowing up the Dolomites in a mass suicide pact. Tripe.
Rating:
Summary: Not one of my favorites
Review: The Big Four represents one of Agatha Christie's early attempts at a "conspiracy" type mystery.Those familiar with some of her later efforts in this genre, such as "Passenger to Frankfurt" are aware that Christie and conspiracies definitely do not mix. In this case, we have Hercule Poirot concerned with unmasking the "Big Four", a group of criminal conspirators trying to take over the world, so to speak. Poirot doesn't fit in this book and the plot seems rather contrived and artificial. The whole thing falls rather flat and Christie should have reaklized that she should have stuck to what she knew best.
Rating:
Summary: A Different Poirot
Review: The classic Poirot sits back and uses his "little gray cells" to cereberally solve the mystery - no gumshoeing for him. He would look at disdain those who took the magnifying glass to the scene, The Big Four is completely different - he is right in the front line of a series of mysteries, in each of which the Big Four criminals have had their hand.
There is much invention here - special gases, special poisons, etc. Almost like a Bond action yarn. I could not tell if Ms Christie was spoofing this genre or stepping out into it on her own.
The book is set up almost as a series of short stories where there are separate crimes. Each time, Poirot figures out that they are perpetrated by the Big Four masterminds who want to take over the world. He identifies three pretty quickly. It is the fourth that has him stymied. A lot does not make sense in the novel - such as why didn't the syndicate take HP out when it looked as if he was getting close? Also, there is very little explanation of how HP solved each crime and even less at the climactic last scene.
Making the book enjoyable, and contributiong to my thought that this may have been a spoof, was a bit more humor than usual for Christie. Most of the time it was tongue-in-cheek and self-effacing or directed at HP.
This was not a bad book, but certainly not up to Christie's usual standards.
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