# The Big Four — Character guide

> Key figures in The Big Four by Agatha Christie.

- [Hercule Poirot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/hercule_poirot.md): A Belgian detective with waxed moustaches and unshakable method, who alone insists a four-headed criminal conspiracy is real while governments dismiss him as a monomaniac.
- [Captain Hastings](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/hastings.md): Poirot's loyal English friend and chronicler, who watches his old ally chase a shadowy four-member conspiracy and wonders, at times, if the chase has become obsession.
- [Inspector Japp](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/inspector_japp.md): A Scotland Yard man of blunt good sense, caught between professional loyalty to Poirot and the Yard's open scepticism about a criminal organization nobody can quite prove exists.
- [Abe Ryland](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/abe_ryland.md): An American multimillionaire of overpowering force and personality, whose casual contempt for Poirot and violent rages over misopened letters suggest a man with far more to hide than money.
- [Li Chang Yen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/li_chang_yen.md): A Chinese mastermind named as Number One of the Big Four, whose very existence is doubted by premiers and police until one quiet voice in the room says simply: I have heard of him.
- [Dr. Savaronoff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/dr_savaronoff.md): A world-renowned scientist whose brilliance makes him a target, and whose disappearance pulls Poirot and Hastings deeper into the reach of the Big Four.
- [Madame Olivier](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/madame_olivier.md): Madame Olivier stands beside Abe Ryland and an empty mandarin's chair, her scarred face and white coif making her look more like a priestess than a modern scientist. Since her husband's death in a laboratory explosion, s
- [John Ingles](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/john_ingles.md): Ingles is an old acquaintance of Poirot's, present at the tense briefing where the detective lays out the Big Four's existence to skeptical officials. While a French premier dismisses the whole conspiracy as mania, Ingle
- [Number Four](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/number_four.md): Number Four is the Big Four's field agent — the one who appears in person while Li Chang Yen directs from afar and Ryland and Olivier lend wealth and genius. Poirot believes him to be Claud Darrell, an actor whose profes
- [Robert Grant](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/robert_grant.md): Robert Grant moves through the case as a figure whose involvement is never quite what it seems, drawing suspicion even as he appears to cooperate. In a world where Number Four can wear any face and the Big Four's reach e
- [Flossie Monro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/flossie_monro.md): Flossie Monro belongs to the human cost of the Big Four's war on the social order — the ordinary lives caught and broken by an organization that treats people as instruments. The pity that clings to her name in the text 
- [Halliday](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/halliday.md): A man whose death is linked to the Big Four conspiracy.
- [Mr. Paynter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/mr_paynter.md): An elderly gentleman who is targeted by the Big Four.
- [Gerald Paynter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/gerald_paynter.md): The nephew of Mr. Paynter, suspected of involvement with the Big Four.
- [Dr. Quentin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/dr_quentin.md): A doctor who treats a key witness and aids Poirot.
- [Ling](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/ling.md): A Chinese servant who works for Li Chang Yen.
- [Achille Poirot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/achille_poirot.md): Achille Poirot is the mirror image of his famous brother — same egg-shaped head, same strutting figure, same delicately plump build — but with dark eyes instead of green and a small scar on his upper lip where the mousta
- [Dr. Ridgeway](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/dr_ridgeway.md): A doctor who examines a poisoned victim.
- [M. Desjardeaux](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/m_desjardeaux.md): A French official who helps Poirot in his investigation.
- [Mrs. Templeton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/mrs_templeton.md): A woman whose son is involved with the Big Four.
- [Mrs. Pearson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/mrs_pearson.md): A housekeeper who witnesses a key event.
- [Sydney Crowther](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/sydney_crowther.md): Crowther sits at the center of the novel's political world, the ranking English official Poirot summons when he needs the state to take the Big Four seriously. His loyalty to Poirot is genuine, but so is his caution: he 
- [Countess Vera Rossakoff](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/countess_rossakoff.md): A glamorous Russian countess and former criminal associate.
- [Captain Harvey](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/captain_harvey.md): A military man who is a suspect in the case.
- [Mr. Whalley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/mr_whalley.md): An old man who provides a clue to Poirot.
- [Mrs. Halliday](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/mrs_halliday.md): The wife of the murdered Halliday.
- [Mayerling](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters/mayerling.md): A mysterious figure associated with the Big Four.

HTML index: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_big_four_se/characters