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    Cat Among the Pigeons
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    Cat Among the Pigeons
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    Cat Among the Pigeons
    Audiobook6 hours

    Cat Among the Pigeons

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Hugh Fraser

    4/5

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    About this audiobook

    Unfortunately, schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much…

    Late one night, two teachers investigate a mysterious flashing light in the sports pavilion, while the rest of the school sleeps. There, among the lacrosse sticks, they stumble upon the body of the unpopular games mistress – shot through the heart from point blank range.

    The school is thrown into chaos when the ‘cat’ strikes again. Unfortunately, schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much. In particular, she knows that without Hercule Poirot’s help, she will be the next victim…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateApr 2, 2007
    ISBN9780007249701
    Unavailable
    Cat Among the Pigeons
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies. She is the author of eighty crime novels and short-story collections, nineteen plays and six novels written under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.

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    Reviews for Cat Among the Pigeons

    4/5

    131 ratings37 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I had forgotten what a good writer she was. Really enjoyed revisiting an author I had not read in years and years.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Set in the posh girl’s boarding school of Meadowbank, Cat Among the Pigeons is a Hercule Poirot mystery. Dealing with political intrigue, missing jewels and murder, this was an interesting read, but I felt the book suffered a little from the late arrival of Poirot. The mystery was all but solved when he was brought into the story to place the final pieces of the puzzle together.I enjoyed the girl’s school setting and the interesting character sketches that were provided for many of the characters, both students and teachers. There appeared to be a feeling among the various characters that something at the school was off, that someone was there who didn’t belong, a cat among the pigeons so to say. Christie throws down plenty of false leads and red herrings but eventually Poirot has his big reveal.Written with her usual flair and style, Christie also gives her readers a fair amount of wit and humor to go along with the murder and mayhem making Cat Among the Pigeons a fun and enjoyable read.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      Another Poirot, but only just. The majority of Cat Among The Pigeons takes place in a girls' boarding school, where the police (with the help of the Secret Service) must uncover the mystery of the dead school mistress and the kidnapping of a high profile student-slash-princess. There is also the case of the missing jewels, smuggled out of Ramat on the eve of the revolution, as well as the question of who will succeed the retiring Miss Bulstrode as formidable headmistress of Meadowbank...Cat Among The Pigeons was a wonderfully plotted mystery whose ending did not disappoint. By the time Poirot steps in to wrap things up, all the different threads have become delightfully muddled, until the Belgian detective steps in to unravel them all and reveal the murderer.The characters were interesting, from the rather bland schoolgirl Jennifer to the dramatic Princess Shaista, and from the hard-nosed Miss Springer to the bulwark that is Miss Bulstrode. What made this book one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels was the multifarious nature of the mystery, the different viewpoints, and the pairing of international mystery and cold-hearted killing with the setting of an English boarding school tucked away in the country. A fantastic and compelling read from the Queen of Crime herself.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      what a pleasant book to read. Really ingenious of Agatha Christie. The fairly harmless girl's school, the turn of events- murder, kidnapping and unlikely reveal. Love the way everything is smoothly tied together in the end. The introduction of Hercules Poirot into the investigation, comes in very late in the book and takes one by surprise. The climax itself catches you off guard. A well knit mystery and surely one of Agatha's best. Highly recommended for everyone.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      I love a good mystery and Cat among Pigeons is just that. Agatha Christie is one mystery writer I enjoy reading.There is not just one murder, but three murders in a prestigious English school, Meadowbank. The book starts out with meeting the characters before they are in school.I enjoyed the story and how it was written. I kept trying to figure out who did it and I love the fact that I didn't know until the very end.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Even though I read this one before, I did not remember the ending. I am usually good at detection, but this one totally threw me off. Dame Agatha is the best! Hercule Poirot rules!

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I absolutely loved the setting of this - I'm a real sucker for school stories and though Poirot makes a very small appearance here, I deeply enjoyed young detective Julia and the various characters in the story. Most illuminating remarks made about teaching and managing a school, too. The plot is a bit of a departure for Christie as it involves espionnage and some of the action takes place in a foreign non-European country but the whole thing felt very logical and smooth. Very good installment.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      A child helps Hercule Poirot solve this mystery that takes place at a school for girls. One very important girl. Secrets and spies abound.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This is actually my favourite Christie but probably because it combines my love of school stories with my love of detective stories! yes, it is a little predictable at times but there is still a classic Christie twist at the end.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      This was one of the first Christie books I ever read. I was craving mystery books but too cool to read ones with older detectives like Poirot or Miss Marple, so my mom gave me this one to read. This is a Poirot book but he doesn't make an appearance until near the end.This mystery takes place at Meadowbrook, a prestigious girls' school in England. But all is not well when murder strikes three times. Julia Upjohn is a student at Meadowbrook and when things start happening, she takes notice of some peculiarities. But she eventually calls upon the great Hercule Poirot to solve these murders.my review: Though I have read many Agatha Christie books, this remains one of my favorites, a book I can read over and over again.As usual, Christie has loads of interesting and suspicious characters, so much so that I am usually halfway through a reread before I remember who the guilty ones are. It is told through the perspective of many characters, but fifteen year old Julia is my favorite. I always thought she should have made an appearance in another Christie novel. No matter the time period, Christie mysteries are ageless. And what does a revolution and priceless gems have to do with a girls' finishing school? Read it and find out!rating 5/5

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      This is one of the Agatha Christie mysteries that involves a dash of international intrigue and I always have a soft spot for these. It's set at a girls' boarding school in the UK but involves hidden jewels and the female heir to the sheikdom of a fictitious Middle Eastern country which has fallen to a revolution. But what makes the book standout from the other stories of international intrigue (which whilst I enjoy, I wouldn't say they are generally AC's best works) are the characters of the various mistresses and schoolgirls who find themselves in the middle of all this and the inevitable multiple murders which follow. It's a Poirot but he doesn't turn up until almost the end of the book after one of the schoolgirls figures out what's going on and asks for his help.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 4/5
      I love this book for the memory it evokes:

      Scene: 8th grade English class. The assignment, as it nearly always seemed to be in junior high, was to read a novel of my choice and present a book report to the class. I picked this book but did not read it. Instead, I made a ridiculous poster board with all kinds of crap on it as a visual aid (I know, right? I was one of "those" kids. I'm positive this poster board included feathers) and planned on pretending I had it done. This was primarily because I was last on the list of those who might go during Friday's class and I was pretty much banking on the other presenters going overtime so I could actually read the book over the weekend.

      With about 10 minutes left in class, the presenters are finished and I am called to go. I can still remember the feeling of my stomach dropping as I walked to the front of the class, trying to dredge as many minute details as I can from my memory of reading THE BLURB ON THE BACK OF THE BOOK. My pulse is racing and, at least in my outlandish memory of this event, I am sweating. (Closely followed up with a dramatic wipe of the brow and nervous laughter) I hold up the poster and say, "Hi. For my project, I read Agatha Christie's Cat Among the Pigeons."

      CUE THE FIRE ALARM GOING OFF.

      You better believe I read that book over the weekend. And you better believe that I still remember where Poirot found the object he was looking for--THIRTEEN YEARS LATER.
    • 4/5
      don't worry! no spoilers. Just a synopsis.I wouldn't rank it up there among my favorites, but Cat Among the Pigeons was quite good. Quite late in the Hercule Poirot series (1959), the great Belgian detective only appears toward the end of this one. Basic synopsis: Ramat, a fictional country somewhere in the Middle East, is poised on the edge of revolution. The leader at the time, one Ali Yusuf, knows that revolution is coming, and entrusts his friend and private pilot with a cache of jewels, giving him instructions to get them out of the country and into safe hands. Rawlinson cannot think how he's going to do this, then settles on the idea of hiding them with his sister, who his there with her daughter on holiday. But he can't think of a place that won't be searched, so he goes to her hotel room while she's out, and hides them in the best place he can think of: in the handle of his niece's tennis racket. The revolution comes, Ali and Rawlinson fly out, and both are killed when their plane is sabotaged.We then learn that the niece, Julia Upjohn, has enrolled at the Meadowbank school, an exclusive, upper-class establishment. After school starts, there are some strange happenings there, none the least of which are two murders. Another student, Jennifer Sutcliffe, had switched rackets with Julia, and thinks it odd when a strange woman comes to Julia and gives her a new raquet, supposedly sent to her by her aunt. After the murders, though, Jennifer begins to put two and two together and goes to seek help from M. Poirot, who doesn't take long to realize that they are dealing with a clever mind.I still cannot read any Hercule Poirot mysteries without hearing and seeing David Suchet in the Poirot role! The book was very well written and the mystery a surprise -- and I enjoyed it very much.
    • 4/5
      Hercule Poirot becomes involved in a mystery at an exclusive girls's school.
    • 3/5
      I think Christie does better at country-house murders than at spy stuff like this. It still held my interest, though. I'm unsure whether I admire her misdirection, or am annoyed by it.
    • 5/5
      One of the best works by Agatha Christie and the best among Hercule Poirot series. Set against the backdrop of Meadowbank school the revolution at Ramat lays heavy upon this plot. The ruler of Ramat and his friend/confidant Bob Rawlinson are murdered by the rebels. Rumors are abound that the jewels of Ramat have reached Meadowbank through Jennifer Sutcliff, Rawlinson’s niece. Cut onto Meadownbank, the scene opens with the summer term where Miss Bulstrode and her teachers are busy welcoming new and old students. The atmosphere though is rife with an implied sense of doom. As term starts, Jennifer Sutcliff confides in Julia Upjohn her best friend and tennis partner about the robbery at her home. While Julia suspects that this maybe due to the Sutcliffs’ association with the Ramat events, Jennifer dismisses it as usual. This is soon followed by a murder at Meadowbank where the Sports Pavilion is ransacked and its sports mistress is murdered. The school’s image takes a further hit with the occurrence of 2 more murders involving the deputy headmistress and the french mistress . Julia pieces together the events and reaches out to Poirot for help. The question becomes – who is the cat among the pigeons?
    • 5/5
      Meadowbrook is a very superior sort of girls' school. So when the games mistress is found murdered, even the police are surprised. At first, it seems a burglary gone wrong. But when a hint of political intrigue pops up, they call in the services of Hercule Poirot.
    • 4/5
      Ramat og Meadowbank, ca 1950I den lille rige ørkenstat Ramat er der revolution og kongefamilien bliver afsat. Herskeren, prins Ali Yusut, og hans privatpilot og ven, Bob Rawlington, dør i et flystyrt. Forinden har Bob anbragt nogle værdifulde ædelsten i en tennisketsjer, som tilhører hans søster Mrs Sutcliffe eller rettere hendes datter Jennifer. Bob bliver uden at han opdager det, tilfældigvis iagttaget af en kvinde i naboværelset, men denne kan ikke nå at gøre noget, før alle engelske statsborgere bliver evakueret fra Ramat.Tilbage i England går Jennifer på den fine pigeskole Meadowbank, sammen med ca 150 andre elever. Jennifer har en god veninde Julia Upton.Udover kvinden i naboværelset, har andre også gættet på at ædelstenene er smuglet ud via Mrs Sutcliffe, men de ved ikke hvordan.Blandt eleverne på Meadowbank er også prinsesse Shaista, kusine til afdøde prins Yusuf, så det er et godt gæt at ædelstenene måske dukker op der.Den engelske udenrigsministerie kender også til ædelstenene og sætter efterretningstjenestens Oberst Ephraim Pikeaway på sagen. Han planter en agent, "gartner" "Adam" "Goodman" på skolen.Skolen ledes af Miss Honoria Bulstrode. Blandt lærerne er Miss Chadwick, der har været der siden skolens start og nærmest er en del af dens fundament. Andre lærere er Eileen Rich, Eleanor Vansittart, Ann Shapland, Miss Blanche, Miss Banon, Miss Blake og gymnastiklærerinden Grace Springer.Miss Springer bliver skudt, da hun overrasker nogen, der leder efter noget i gymnastiksalen. Senere bliver Vansittart slået ihjel samme sted med en sandpose.Julia Uptons mor genkender en af personerne på skolen, men desværre tager hun på bustur i Anatolien inden politiet når at udspørge hende.Julia Upton gætter hvor ædelstenene er skjult og opsøger Hercule Poirot, der tager affære. Mademoiselle Blanche har set noget og forsøger at afpresse morderen. Det var dumt for morderen slår prompte til igen.Til sidst bliver Mrs. Upton bragt til veje og kan udpege Miss Shapland som morderen. Hun bliver anholdt, men når at skyde Miss Chadwick, hvilket får regnskabet til at gå op, for Miss Chadwick havde slået Vansittant ihjel af raseri over at denne så ud til at blive den nye leder af skolen.Ædelstenene leverer Poirot videre til en Hr. Robinson, som leverer dem videre til Alice Calder, der er Yusufs hustru og har en søn, Allen, med ham. Julia Upton får en enkelt af stenene som en slags findeløn og alle de andre får Robinson i opdrag at sælge.
    • 4/5
      The political intrigue bit of the book was interesting but the actual murder mystery at the girls' school was rather obvious.
    • 5/5
      When this was published Christie had already been a best-selling author for more than three decades. She's got it down. Certainly she has fun with the format. Hercule Poirot doesn't appear, isn't even mentioned, until the final act. The girl's school setting is fun: it gives her rein to use all the stereotypes and to demolish them.

      This particular book was on Natasha's shelf, which is why I didn't get to it during my Christie run. Saturday night she comes to tell me goodnight and to ask if I know why the book is there. And even though I can't remember what day it is, I was able to tell her that she picked it out at a library book sale, because she recognized the author. Alternatively, every bookcase is required to have at least one Christie. Or, maybe, a book is just a clever disguise for aliens who've come to observe us. After two hours of increasingly random speculation about space, and teleportation, and replicators, she finally went off to bed, leaving the book with me, because now it felt slightly sinister.

      Subtle evil plan to acquire all the books is working. "Maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh, maniacal laugh." Personal copy now.
    • 4/5
      a good book for an essay- enjoyable with a good plot and charcters. The ending was somewhat suprising and easy to summarize.
    • 4/5
      A fine example of Christie's ability to spin a whodunnit. This is among her better later works.
    • 5/5
      Very good storey. Plenty of action right to the end.
    • 2/5
      I haven't read any Agatha Christie in a long while. Either I don't like her as much as I used to or this wasn't one of her better books. A Hercule Poirot, but he doesn't show up until about 3/4 of the way through. Okay, but just not that good a plot. Meh.
    • 3/5
      This wasn't my favorite Agatha Christie. I did get to like some of the characters, but they all seemed very detached, not relating to each other, just a list of suspects. By the end, when all was revealed, I found I didn't much care who the culprit was. So far though, Agatha Christie never disappoints entirely, it was still a good read.
    • 2/5
      In which a prim British girls’ school becomes the unlikely target for murder and espionage.

      First, a digression: even the most devoted Christie acolyte cannot deny the Dame’s faded glory in the last years of her life. "Cat Among the Pigeons" is probably more respected by some, and – as I quite enjoyed both reading it, and watching the recent David Suchet adaptation, which contained a large and talented cast, and utilised the autumnal, rueful qualities that have lately characterised Suchet’s Poirot – I don’t want to seem cruel. But for me this mediocre, if solid. Christie was by now one of the world’s foremost experts on writing a crime story, and even a misguided attempt was bound to yield some fruit.

      "Cat Among the Pigeons" is one of Poirot’s lesser novels, in my opinion. The story rests on so many contrivances – like "The Clocks", we can only believe in so many secret identities – and an annoying number of callbacks to Christie’s early days as a mediocre thriller writer, that it can’t possibly hope to match up to her skillful ‘true’ murder mysteries. There are some enchanting elements in play: Christie turns things on their head as usual, taking an Enid Blyton-style school and making it the centrepiece for murder; and, as with her later period Poirot novels, it’s nice to see the detective dealing with his age and his relationship to the modern world. (Also like several of the later Poirot novels, he arrives very late in the piece.)

      At the end of the day, Poirot fans will find things to enjoy in "Cat Among the Pigeons", and her writing style is delightfully informal. Surprisingly, for a novel that sticks in the memory for its general atmosphere, I just don’t believe it has much merit.

      Poirot ranking: 35th out of 38
    • 3/5
      good book.
    • 4/5
      I like the book
      The audio sometimes cut out for 30s
    • 4/5

      A Crown Prince who has brought Democracy to his country & his pilot (a chum from school days) are forced to flee the country.... Their plane is found downed in the mountains and a thorough search is made for the sparkling "insurance"..... but the pilot was seen hiding them in order to get them out of the country lest they fall into the wrong hands.......

      At an elite girls school in England the term has just begun and there is a new sports mistress, French mistress, school secretary, & gardner..... Dropping her daughter off at school a former employee of the CID sees someone from the past and as she tells the Headmistress (who is about to retire & name her successor), who the person from her espionage days is, they are interrupted by another mother in midst of a binge seeking to bring her daughters home.

      Then the sports mistress is murdered in the new sports pavillion, as is the French mistress, and the to be successor..... Homes are ransacked, the cousin of the Prince is kidnapped, and a frightened little girl runs to M. Hercule Poirot.

      Very interesting, I would have liked it to be a bit longer, even though in some places it was difficult for me to tell whom was speaking to whom...

      And once again, Dame Agatha showed her unending prejudice; this time it was of the two Italian school girls, whom she dedicated a paragraph to in order to refer to them as "Eye-Ties", and then there was nothing more in the book about them... otherwise it was a very enjoyable story.
    • 3/5
      The murder of the (in American terms) gym teacher at an exclusive British girls' school is linked to the valuable package of gems dispatched by a Middle Eastern rule just before he died during a revolutuib, and also to intrigues over the succession to the retiring head of the school itself. The final choice is a little subversive by the standards of the time.