|
It's always bugged me that the "official" order for Poirot has The Murder of Roger Ackroyd before The Big Four, even though the end of The Big Four ("I'm going to retire to the country and grow marrows") marries up perfectly with the start of Roger Ackroyd (Poirot is attempting to grow marrows in the country).
This happened because The Big Four was serialized before Roger Ackroyd and then collected and published as a book afterwards.
To be honest, though, I'd probably recommend skipping The Big Four altogether. And that tiny bit of continuity doesn't really add anything to either book.
There are plenty of series I've discovered with a random out-of-order book. I will usually revert to a "proper" order once I've decided to read the whole lot, but even then it could be chronological or it could be publication order, if they're different. And then more books, might come out later at different points in the timeline (eg. Sharpe).
|