All the Cloaks and All the Daggers: The Big Four | 1927

(image from here)

"It is a duel to the death, mon ami. You and I on the one side, the Big Four on the other. They have won the first trick; but they have failed in their plan to get me out of the way, and in the future they have to reckon with Hercule Poirot!" - The Big Four, p. 16

The Sum of It:

So you know that thing where you go to see the latest James Bond movie and it's all spy-ish and everyone is constantly dressed in evening wear and you're like yeah, I could be a spy? Well it seems like maybe Agatha Christie had that same feeling right before writing The Big Four. This third Agatha novel featuring Hercule Poirot and his ever faithful sidekick, Arthur Hastings, takes the air of adventure we were introduced to in The Secret Adversary to a WHOLE NEW LEVEL. I mean, look at the different cover art this book has had over the years - they are very Bond-esque.

   

(images found here, here, and here)

The Big Four begins with a sort of Gift of the Magi situation with fairly-newly-married Hastings making the long journey back to England from The Argentine (where apparently he has turned cattle farmer since the end of The Murder on the Links). He is super stoked to surprise his bestie, and shows up at Poirot's door only to see a pile of suitcases because OF COURSE Poirot was already on his way to South America to visit Hastings AT THE SAME TIME. Hastings is like okay great to let's just hang in England because I'm already here, but Poirot is like nope, sorry I just got offered an enormous amount of money by an American bajillionaire to go and investigate some "hocus pocus" in Rio so how about you drop me off at the station. However, as they are literally walking out the door for the train station, a man staggers into Poirot's apartment, scribbles the number 4 all over some paper, and then promptly DIES. (Hastings suggests perhaps he has "brain fever" - Poirot says uh no, you are not a doctor, Hastings.)

Thus begins a truly epic 198 pages of twists and turns as Poirot and Hastings literally put themselves in harm's way to get to the bottom of an international crime ring known as the Big Four. This book reads almost like a collection of mini cases with Poirot and Hastings investigating basically half a dozen murders, all seemingly unconnected...until Poirot finds that one little clue that links the death to the mysterious Big Four. 

Winners:

Stunts: In The Big Four, Poirot and Hastings jump out of a moving train, get into fist fights with thugs, are kidnapped NUMEROUS times, and escape from a country home by climbing down ivy from an upstairs window! 

Hastings: While still self-admittedly several steps behind Poirot for most of the book, Hastings does have a few shining moments, even receiving some kudos from Poirot himself: "How marvelous is my friend Hastings! He knows everything -- but everything! How do they say -- Inquire Within Upon Everything. That is my friend Hastings."

Losers:

English Coffee: Apparently, it is not to Poirot's liking. "Only in England is the coffee so atrocious. On the continent they understand how important it is for the digestion that it should be properly made."

#hastingsinlove: Poor Hastings. Even happily married, he can't help himself wistfully remarking how pretty girls are (sometimes based solely on their name), particularly if their hair is a "delicate shade of auburn." Poirot shamelessly calls him out: "Always looking for romance! You are incorrigible!"

The YOA Treatment:

Poirot makes a thoughtful observation about his friend Hastings in this book: "Your narrative style is masterly. I say to myself, it is a book that talks, not my friend Hastings." Hastings is our window into Poirot's world, giving the reader the perfect person to connect with, for not all of us possess the little grey cells of the Hercule Poirot! 

Without Hastings, Poirot's remarkable genius might feel too unrealistic, too uncanny to make much sense. But Hastings offers the foil that both reveals Poirot's brilliance and ensures that the reader doesn't feel alone in being a step or two behind the best. 

Agatha is obviously not the only mystery writer to employ the not-as-clever-but-good-at-writing-things-down friend as a narrator. Another obvious example is Dr. John Watson's narration of the Sherlock Holmes cases. Like Hastings, Dr. Watson serves as a conduit for the eccentric Holmes's methods to the reader, giving us the facts, and yet also not afraid to pose questions to the famous sleuth, so that both companion and reader can keep up. In her autobiography, Agatha notes the influence of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle as she created her own characters and story structures, and in Hastings is perhaps the clearest example. Seeing Poirot's cases through Hastings's eyes is a delight, not only because of the often hilarious exchanges between these two unlikely friends, but also because Hastings's reactions as events unfold are our reactions, particularly in The Big Four, where Poirot is often keeping Hastings in the dark of his clever plans to outwit the villains. 

-A.

How to be Charming: The Secret Adversary | 1922

"You must stifle this longing for vulgar sensation, Tuppence. Remember that if Mr. Brown is all he is reported to be, it's a wonder that he has not ere now done us to death. That's a good sentence, quite a literary flavor about it." "You're really more conceited than I am--with less excuse!" - Tommy & Tuppence banter exhibit 4 million from The Secret Adversary, p. 57

The Sum of It:
The Secret Adversary begins with a prologue set in the last above-sea-level minutes aboard the Lusitania. Two attractives notice each other in what could likely be the last moments of their lives. However, hope for end of life comfort is dashed by a secret mission as a document is handed off to a young American lady before she boards a lifeboat #womenandchildren.

Our story itself opens with the most charming greetings ever between the main characters (not the boat people): “Tommy old thing!” “Tuppence old bean!” (dolls). Tommy and Tuppence knew each other during WWI while Tuppence was acting as a nurse in a soldiers hospital. Turns out post-war they’re both broke and unemployed, like pretty much everyone else in their generation (remember that number from White Christmas where they dance around in the giant wooden cutouts of people and sing about how they wish they were back in the army because of the free meals and such? Pretty much like that but one war earlier). They hatch a plan to raise funds via adventures, “no unreasonable offer refused.”

Their tenure as young adventurers begins with an overheard name: Jane Finn, which Tuppence cleverly repeats to a mysterious man who heard their plan and basically stalks her in a park to try to hire her to move to Paris (nooothing shady, he promises. MHMM). Sleuths now “in earnest,” they follow the trail of the mysterious Mr. Whittington (the stalker) which leads them straight to a SECRET GOVERNMENT AGENT who is like “you dummies are in the middle of something FAR BIGGER THAN YOURSELVES” then naturally hires them as spies (presumably bc they are charming and...expendable?)

Tommy and Tuppence pursue Jane Finn, the secret document, and the mysterious Mr. Brown (COMMIE/CRIMINAL MASTERMIND) lit’rally all over Great Britain. They're fueled by cleverness and witty repartee and accompanied by an American named Julius, who proves his Americanness by saying things like "If that's the case, and there's such a thing as graft in this country, I'll buy her off!" and "See here, this isn't Sicily!" They also engage a young sidekick named Albert who is perpetually on the brink of saying "GEE WHIZ" and generally keeps an eye out.

In the interest of not getting too spoiler-y because this book is stuffed to its gills with suspenseful twists and turns and disappearances and kidnappings and intrigues and hidden rooms and secret communist meetings and nursing homes and car chases (for realz), I will not do much plot summarizing re: the rest of the book, but there is more charming banter than an episode of Gilmore Girls and the dadgum story is so exciting and suspenseful it cost me most of a night of sleep the first time I read it because I HAD to finish it in one sitting #AgathaReigns #YasKween.

Not Tuppence, but close

The YOA Treatment:
Of all the Christie books I've read before, this one is probably my favorite, even on a re-read. In addition to a legit suspenseful storyline and more than one major twist, favoritism is largely due to the crime fighters we meet in this, Agatha's second book; Tuppence Cowley and Tommy Beresford. Tommy and Tuppence are two 20-somethings with little to their names besides cleverness, and like most of Agatha's sleuths, they lean on their intuition to solve the mysteries rather than training.

Tuppence, a plucky, quick-witted, level-headed girl with progressive tendencies (she favors fashionable short skirts and refuses to play a supporting role) creates an archetype of #empoweredladies we'll see repeated in lots of Agatha's stories. Though Tommy and Tuppence are a duo, and Tommy calls upon his resourcefulness to get out of a number of scrapes, Tuppence is the brains of the operation. She pushes Tommy to think outside of the box and focus on their interest in adventure when they can't find jobs, she finds them their first mystery, roots out key suspects, goes under cover, and all kinds of other stuff on her own initiative #LeanIn. Agatha doesn't write many simpering heroines or weak damsels in distress, instead creating women who know what's up and take care of it (often while making snappy little jokes).

In her autobiography, Agatha mentions how one of her grandmothers was always complaining of some vague ailment or another, which Agatha eventually divined was really just an act to demonstrate the feminine frailty deemed attractive in the 19th century. Agatha recognized this as an antique mentality; 20th century girls were made of heartier stuff. In Tuppence she created a leading lady who not only embraced the bobbed hair and ankle-baring fashions of her day but also the why-not-me spirit of the post-war girl.

- E