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3.72 AVERAGE
3.72 AVERAGE
An English all-girls’ boarding school is invaded by murder and jewels! Was it the gardener? Is that girl really a princess? What’s the deal with the tennis rackets? Why are the French always portrayed as prissy and the female PE teachers as snooping hulks of women? And above all: who is the cat among the pigeons? Read Dame Christie’s novel to find out the answers to all of these mysteries! P.S. If you can’t tell, I had fun reading this novel.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Another Hercule Poirot book by the inimitable Agatha Christie....
The scene opens in a remote - fictional - Middle Eastern kingdom where a revolution is brewing. The benign ruler Ali has been trying to introduce democracy to this backward kingdom, but there are forces which do not want this to happen and they will do whatever is necessary to prevent the King to continue as he was doing. The King gives his family jewels to his pilot/confidant to safeguard and the pilot visits the hotel his sister is staying to hide the jewels among his sister's belongings, not realising that the whole affair had been observed from the beginning to the end.
The story then jumps to a prestigious girls' school in England. It is the first week of the term and all of the students are coming back from vacation and settling in school. There are some new teachers and a couple of new pupils. This routine starting week of the school is disturbed by a murder when the new Physical Training teacher is shot and killed in the Sports Pavillion in the middle of the night.
While local police are struggling to find a motive in this killing a second murder is committing. Suspicious of the events, one of the students goes to Hercule Poirot and informs him about the events at the school and asks for his help.
It is quite a late start for Poirot and as such the book does not give him enough of a role, to the disappointment of Poirot fans (I am one, I think he is the most likeable protagonist in Christie's books). He solves the mystery using his typical techniques but I found it disappointing that he comes into the story quite late and as such the solution looks unrealistically simplified. As usual most Christie books are enjoyable at some level and this is not an exception.
The scene opens in a remote - fictional - Middle Eastern kingdom where a revolution is brewing. The benign ruler Ali has been trying to introduce democracy to this backward kingdom, but there are forces which do not want this to happen and they will do whatever is necessary to prevent the King to continue as he was doing. The King gives his family jewels to his pilot/confidant to safeguard and the pilot visits the hotel his sister is staying to hide the jewels among his sister's belongings, not realising that the whole affair had been observed from the beginning to the end.
The story then jumps to a prestigious girls' school in England. It is the first week of the term and all of the students are coming back from vacation and settling in school. There are some new teachers and a couple of new pupils. This routine starting week of the school is disturbed by a murder when the new Physical Training teacher is shot and killed in the Sports Pavillion in the middle of the night.
While local police are struggling to find a motive in this killing a second murder is committing. Suspicious of the events, one of the students goes to Hercule Poirot and informs him about the events at the school and asks for his help.
It is quite a late start for Poirot and as such the book does not give him enough of a role, to the disappointment of Poirot fans (I am one, I think he is the most likeable protagonist in Christie's books). He solves the mystery using his typical techniques but I found it disappointing that he comes into the story quite late and as such the solution looks unrealistically simplified. As usual most Christie books are enjoyable at some level and this is not an exception.
adventurous
mysterious
Good mystery, but Hercule Poirot doesn't show up until the last few chapters and quickly solves things. We don't really get to see him in action; we just hear through other characters who he's been to interview.
Set at a girls' boarding school, the P.E. teacher is killed. No one seems to be that bothered; she wasn't well-liked, but, as one teacher says, she wasn't disliked either. Then another teacher is killed, and a foreign princess is kidnapped. Involves civil war in Middle Eastern country, a cache of jewels, and Hercule Poirot.
Set at a girls' boarding school, the P.E. teacher is killed. No one seems to be that bothered; she wasn't well-liked, but, as one teacher says, she wasn't disliked either. Then another teacher is killed, and a foreign princess is kidnapped. Involves civil war in Middle Eastern country, a cache of jewels, and Hercule Poirot.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
this is the first Agatha Christie mystery I read when in middle school.
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
Not my favorite Hercule Poirot (probably because he doesn't appear till the last fifty pages).
But a fun, easy read, nonetheless :)
But a fun, easy read, nonetheless :)
Agatha Christie is my all-time favorite author, but every now and then I read (or reread) one of her books, and I can't give it five stars. CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS is a good mystery, definitely! However, when it's billed as a Hercule Poirot mystery and the famed detective doesn't show up until almost the third act, I am disappointed. This is the third time I've read this book, and I still wish that it would have been Poirot doing the suspect interviews after the original murder.
Nonetheless, CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS is an engaging mystery. It's got missing jewels, international intrigue, princesses, a posh English boarding school, and dead bodies. If you're a mystery fan, then it's likely you'll enjoy this one from the master herself: Agatha Christie.
Nonetheless, CAT AMONG THE PIGEONS is an engaging mystery. It's got missing jewels, international intrigue, princesses, a posh English boarding school, and dead bodies. If you're a mystery fan, then it's likely you'll enjoy this one from the master herself: Agatha Christie.