The Big Four
by Agatha Christie (William Collins & Sons, 1927)
audiobook read by Hugh Fraser (Lamplight, 2014)
A fix-up novel that shows its seams yet affords both an arch-(group)nemesis for Poirot and also the space to do it justice (cf. Conan Doyle’s one-shot introduction and despatch of Moriarty). Poirot’s quirks and Hastings’ stupidity remain one-dimensional and rather clumsily wrought.
The Murder on the Links
by Agatha Christie (The Bodley Head, 1923)
audiobook read by Hugh Fraser (Lamplight, 2014)
Setting aside Hastings and his galling outbreak of instalove, this is a thoroughly enjoyable piece of detective fiction—lucidly told and ingenious, affording an excellent vehicle for Hercule Poirot. There are coincidences, of course, but of the less egregious kind. Misleading title.
Poirot Investigates
by Agatha Christie (The Bodley Head, 1924); audiobook read by David Suchet (HarperAudio, 2012)
Poirot is well suited to the short story form—a less faceted character than Holmes but more endearing and also more inclined to solve cases from the evidence at hand. Hastings, however, narrates like Bertie Wooster and makes a poor Watson substitute.