Alain Paillou and The Big Four

Captain Hastings travels to Dover, England

Agatha Christie's novel The Big Four doesn't get much love. When it was published in 1927, literary critics saw it as uninspired paste-up drawn from earlier stories. The TV series, Agatha Christie's Poirot, waited until their last season to adapt it, and utilized little beyond a few characters and scenes in their version. Agatha Christie, in a letter to her agent, supposedly called the novel "rotten."

Captain Hastings reunites with his friend Hercule Poirot

Yet many fans regard the novel with great affection, and it's easy to see why. Its title calls to mind the Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of Four, and Agatha Christie repeatedly alluded to Arthur Conan Doyle's characters and stories in her novels. Beyond that, the novel exudes a big screen quality far grander than most of its successors. 

Poirot and Hastings depart London to investigate the Big Four

While Agatha Christie usually held back, and constrained her characters' actions, here she lets go, and shows what she could do if she let her imagination really fly. Thus we see Poirot leaping off moving trains, actually traveling to countries instead of sending for information, and teaming with the military to invade the lair of a villain set on world domination. 

Their investigations take them to Paris, France.

Likewise, his friend Arthur Hastings becomes more of an action-man. He even goes undercover at one point. Of course, he suffers a few knocks, but that's all in the line of duty for this British patriot and former Army Captain.

Poor Hastings!

We may never see a televised adaptation, let alone a big screen release, that does justice to The Big Four. But Alain Paillou's graphic novel gives us a taste of what could be achieved, if filmmakers and the Christie estate greenlit a production. The artwork evokes the times in which Agatha Christie's story is set, and takes us to such evocative locales as London, Dartmoor Prison, Paris, and to the Dolomites.

Poirot and Hastings question a murder suspect

Unlike the graphic novel, the latter is a mountain range in Italy, not a tasty treat. Nonetheless, I'm sure that, wherever you are, you can buy or make a few tantalizing delights to enjoy while you sit back and immerse yourself in Alain Paillou's The Big Four. 

A man dies under mysterious circumstances in Poirot's apartment.

Thus, while you follow Hercule Poirot's investigations, you could make a real event of the reading, and indulge all your senses. Might I suggest a box of chocolates? That could prove the perfect accompaniment to this exciting reading experience, given the little Belgian's culinary tastes.

Oh no, not the beautiful Countess Rossakoff again!

Just make sure the cover of the package matches the box. Otherwise, you could be taking your life into your hands by eating those oh-so-temping confections.

Dragon Dave