The Big Four: The Original 12 Stories

The Hercule Poirot Mysteries, Book 4

De: Agatha Christie

Narrado por: Gabrielle de Cuir, John Rubinstein, Stefan Rudnicki

“If one man does not make a move, the other must, and by permitting the adversary to make the attack one learns something about him.”

In The Big Four, Hercule Poirot investigates a string of murders that appear to be disconnected on the surface, but Agatha Christie’s Belgian detective sees the only tiny detail that links them all together. For some obscure reason that Poirot is determined to uncover, the number four keeps popping up with every killing. Poirot soon learns that there is in fact an international crime gang dubbed “The Big Four,” and he sets off after them. With Hastings once again at his side, Monsieur Poirot travels all over Europe to find them, but the pair are always seem to be a step behind this shadowy syndicate.

This audiobook features the original twelve linked stories as they first appeared in The Sketch periodical, before Christie re-worked them with her brother-in-law to create the novel, The Big Four. Originally titled The Man Who Was Number Four: Further of Adventures of M. Poirot, this collection not only sees the return of Hastings and Inspector Japp, but it also introduced to the world Achille Poirot, the identical twin of Hercule Poirot himself!

Featuring original advertisements from The Sketch, and an introduction by Gabrielle de Cuir.

Full Contents:

1. “The Unexpected Guest”

2. “The Adventure of the Dartmoor Bungalow”

3. “The Lady on the Stairs”

4. “The Radium Thieves”

5. “In the House of the Enemy”

6. “The Yellow Jasmine Mystery”

7. “The Chess Problem”

8. “The Baited Trap”

9. “The Adventures of the Peroxide Blonde”

10. “The Terrible Catastrophe”

11. “The Dying Chinaman”

12. “The Crag in the Dolomites”

Public Domain (P)2023 Blackstone Publishing

Loved

Really loved listening to all of these Hercule Poirot stories! Have already listened to them several times.

The commercials were interesting

I wonder if any of those companies are still around. If this was the first story for me I would not have purchased any other.

Repetitive Series

I should’ve read more about this before buying it. These were originally published as serialized stories, and therefore the later stories repeat information from those preceding—in a clunky way. The story construction also differs from the novels in a way that doesn’t work for me: Poirot and Hastings as action adventure types vs a diabolical gang of 4 out for world domination via some radioactive magnetism thingy? I’m done, with 3 hours left .