Characters in The Big Four

Hercule Poirot

The fastidious Belgian detective, here pulled out of his armchair into a perilous global manhunt that tests his nerve and ego as much as his 'little grey cells.'

Also in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links, Poirot Investigates, The Murder of Roger Ackroyd, Mystery of the Blue Train, Black Coffee, Peril at End House, Lord Edgware Dies, Murder on the Orient Express, Murder in Three Acts

Li Chang Yen

Number One of the Big Four, a reclusive Chinese political mastermind regarded as the conspiracy's true brain, who never leaves his own country.

Abe Ryland

Number Two, an immensely rich American financier whose fortune bankrolls the syndicate's ambitions.

Madame Olivier

Number Three, a celebrated French scientist whose research gives the conspiracy access to fearsome new weapons.

Captain Arthur Hastings

Poirot's earnest, often-outmatched friend and chronicler, who narrates the case and repeatedly walks into the conspiracy's traps.

Also in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Murder on the Links, Poirot Investigates, Black Coffee, Peril at End House, Lord Edgware Dies, Dumb Witness, Curtain

Inspector Japp

The dependable Scotland Yard detective who lends official backing to Poirot's unofficial war on the syndicate.

Also in The Mysterious Affair at Styles, Poirot Investigates, Black Coffee, Lord Edgware Dies, Death in the Clouds, The Under Dog and Other Stories, Poirot's Early Cases, The Affair at the Victory Ball

Countess Vera Rossakoff

A glamorous exiled Russian aristocrat and recurring figure in Poirot's life whose shifting allegiances make her both ally and danger.

Also in The Labours of Hercules