Review: The Big Four and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd - Agatha Christie

Title The Big Four
Author Agatha Christie
Pages 282
Year 1927
Publisher RBA
Reading time 5 days (January 2010)
Rating 7 / 10

I've been reading the Agatha Christie's novels for some time. Apart from the short stories this was the weakest book but nevertheless it is a good book... but not the standard of the other books like Murder in Orient Expess or Murder of Roger Ackroyd. The plot was a bit different from other novels... On this book we have Poirot against the big(est) four masterminds on internacional crime. Interesting or not one of them resembles Fu Manchu. The others are a billionare, a mad scientist and the destroyer (the guy who does the dirty work). This four are behind everything that unrest the world. Even behind Lenin and Trotsky (who are puppets on their hands). Of Course their plot is ... take over the world.

Well this book fails everything Agatha has written before or after. It seems this book was in a hurry to get something out on a dealine or ... maybe it wasn't written by her (?). It's predictable, pointless and very far-fetched. I think this was the book someone read and then it was inspired to do 007. If you like james bond movies then read this book ... there is no point reading if you don't like James Bond.

Saying that read another book by her if you want to start reading Agatha Christie novels... I have made some reviews on my blog. Search them...

Title The Murder of Roger Ackroyd
Author Agatha Christie
Pages 310
Year 1926
Publisher RBA
Reading time 3 days (November/December 2009)
Rating 10 / 10

Well this was some fun reading. It has something I didn't saw anywhere before. It's on the first person but... the end suprised me and I bet it suprises everybody. It is a masterpiece how Agatha writes in the first person and he (SPOILER ALERT) is the killer. How about that? It's completly briliant and it's the most controversial mystery novel of the 20the cenutry. You know it nearly got Agatha Christie out of Detection Club? (It's an organization of writers who agreed to play fair and adhere to a code of ethics in their writing to give the reader a fair chance at guessing the guilty parties). The oath was ... Do you promise that your detective shall well and truly detect the crimes presented to them using those wits which it may please you to bestow upon them and not placing reliance on nor making use of Divine Revelation, Feminie Intuition, Mumbo Jumbo, Jiggery-Pokery, Coincidence or Act of God?)

This book will shock you. It's well crafted with devious plot devices and I say Christie raise a level with this book. It's a genius because she had the imagination to do something original. If Murder on the Orient Express is her most famous book this is her best book as she said on her bibliography.