YMMV / The Big Four

• Broken Base: That this is one of Agatha Christie's worst Poirot novels, and indeed one of her worst books in general, is agreed upon. Whether it is worth skipping altogether, reading for the sake of completion, read for the sheer entertainment factor, or seen as an interesting and unusually high-stakes look at Poirot (and Hastings), however, is a bit more up for debate.
• Harsher in Hindsight: After Poirot is killed off in Curtain, his Faking the Dead is a lot harder to read.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: Nowadays, someone randomly coming across the title of this novel may be forgiven to confuse it with a very popular crossover on the Internet...
• Narm Charm: A charitable interpretation of this book is that it falls under this. Did you ever want to see Hercule Poirot employ smoke bombs and real bombs while tracking down his quarry? Congratulations, this is the book for you.