The Big Four
- 224
- Pages
- about 4 h
- Reading time
- TV film 2013
- On screen
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Our view
“The Big Four” is Poirot in an unusual key: less a classic puzzle than an adventure about a conspiracy on a grand scale. Hastings and Japp are on hand, and the detective is allowed to be wrong, which gives the book its interest. Some readers find it disjointed, a chain of episodes more than one story, and count the change of style against it. Chiefly for those reading all of Poirot.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
The Big Four is a mystery novel by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by William Collins & Sons on 27 January 1927 and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company later in the same year. It features Hercule Poirot, Arthur Hastings, and Inspector Japp. The UK edition retailed at seven shillings and sixpence (7/6) and the US edition at $2.00.
Reading order · canon of Hercule Poirot
Full order & progress →
On screen
This book has been adapted for the screen once.
- TV filmThe Big FourIMDb
Adaptation data: Wikidata · On screen →
Where the score comes from
The sources average 6.6 across 251 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 63% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Classics average of 7.7. That is how 7.0 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 8.2 | 23 | 9% |
| Hardcover | 6.5 | 228 | 91% |
Frequently asked
How long is The Big Four?
It has 224 pages — shorter than 95% of the ranked books in Classics.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Classics — with scores between 7.0 and 7.5, closest to this book.
