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gatha Christie tries something new in “The Big Four” (1927), pitting Poirot against a global illuminati. I know it’s less successful than her single-site mysteries because I wasn’t drawn back to each sitting with the book for the whodunit, but rather for the oddity value. “The Big Four” is strangely structured, with bizarre choices of emphasis as Christie shoehorns her strength – Poirot solves mini-mysteries, all of which feature The Big Four’s hand – into something she’d like to be good at (international intrigue), but isn’t quite. (Her interest in larger-scale crime is tipped in “The Secret Adversary,” but it’s more effectively in the background there.)Continue reading “Sleuthing Sunday: ‘The Big Four’ by Agatha Christie (1927) (Book review)”