{"id":2759,"date":"2012-07-25T21:48:31","date_gmt":"2012-07-26T01:48:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/?p=2759"},"modified":"2012-10-06T00:29:52","modified_gmt":"2012-10-06T04:29:52","slug":"book-review-the-big-four-by-agatha-christie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/archives\/2759","title":{"rendered":"The Big Four by Agatha Christie"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a>
\n [rating=1] I hesitate to use the word “awful” in association with the Queen of Crime, but ‘The Big Four’<\/a> is a bad egg. Penned (some say ghost-written) during Dame Agatha’s worst year: In 1926, her mother died and her husband told her he was in love with another woman and wanted a divorce. <\/p>\n

No wonder she was off her game, poor dear.<\/p>\n

Originally published in serial format, this cluster of overblown spy adventures should never have featured portly, inactive Poirot & poor, clueless Hastings as action-heroes. They simply don’t suit. James Bond and Tintin would have been better cast in these roles.<\/p>\n

Moving away from subtle clues and hidden motives, Christie seems to have written a movie script for Michael Bay<\/a> to direct. There are poisoned blow darts disguised as cigarettes, evil Russian countesses, underground lairs, ninja smoke bombs, mountain fortresses… it’s absurdly over the top. The shark? Agatha has jumped it.<\/p>\n

Oh, and the racism. Yikes! Asian people, I apologize for this woeful bag of stereotyped, insulting nonsense. Fu Manchu looks good next to Li Chang Yen and Ah Ling. So embarrassing. As Christie would say, “I welly sorry.” *cringe*<\/i><\/p>\n

Leave this one on the shelf, and go read one of Christie’s slow-paced village mysteries; they’re so much better. If you’re desperate for an international spy thriller by her, try ‘The Man in the Brown Suit’ instead. <\/p>\n

No, really, she can write MUCH better than this…<\/strong><\/p>\n

1) International crime! That doesn’t suck! Agatha’s ‘The Man in the Brown Suit’<\/a><\/p>\n

2) The first Poirot, and one of the best. Agatha’s ‘Mysterious Affair at Styles’<\/a><\/p>\n

3) Another brilliant, rule-breaking Poirot. Agatha’s ‘Murder of Roger Ackroyd’<\/a><\/p>\n

4) Outlandish plot, but not absurdly so. Agatha’s ‘The A.B.C. Murders’<\/a><\/p>\n

1 of 5 stars \/ bookshelves: read, mystery, 224 pages, Publisher: Avon (2011 reprint; first published 1927)
\nRead from July 19 to 25, 2012<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

[rating=1] I hesitate to use the word “awful” in association with the Queen of Crime, but ‘The Big Four’ is a bad egg. Penned (some say ghost-written) during Dame Agatha’s worst year: In 1926, her mother died and her husband told her he was in love with another woman and wanted a divorce. No wonder […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1531,1380],"tags":[1224,1468,1471,1470,1469,1466,306,1467],"class_list":["post-2759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mystery-novels","category-book-reviews","tag-agatha-christie","tag-asian-stereotypes","tag-james-bond","tag-one-star","tag-poirot","tag-queen-of-crime","tag-racism","tag-tintin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2759"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2878,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2759\/revisions\/2878"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pipesdreams.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}