Cat Among the Pigeons: B2

Written by Agatha Christie

Narrated by Roger May

Collins brings the Queen of Crime, Agatha Christie, to English language learners.

Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time and in any language. Now Collins has adapted her famous detective novels for English language learners. These carefully abridged versions are shorter with the language targeted at learners of English.

Late one night, two teachers investigate a mysterious light in the school Sports Pavilion. Among the tennis racquets and lacrosse sticks, they find the body of the unpopular games mistress – shot through the heart.

Schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much, and begins to worry that she might be the next victim. Can detective Hercule Poirot find the killer before the ‘cat’ strikes again?

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
• Release date: Oct 13, 2016
• ISBN: 9780008210540

Agatha Christie

Agatha Christie is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in English with another billion in over 70 foreign languages. She is the most widely published author of all time and in any language, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 20 plays, and six novels written under the name of Mary Westmacott.

Reviews for Cat Among the Pigeons

[rmarcin-630843 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Hercule Poirot appears near the end of this mystery, and solves the mystery, of course!
A Middle Eastern prince believes he will be killed during a revolution in his country, so he entrusts Bob Rawlinson, his friend, with a fortune in jewels, asking him to smuggle them out. Bob hides them in his niece, Jennifer's, tennis racquet, without telling her, but he is unaware that someone witnesses this. Sadly, Bob and the prince die in a plane crash.
At Meadowbank, a prestigious girls' school, the headmistress is contemplating her successor. Several staff members are vying for the position. Jennifer and her friend Julia play tennis, exchanging racquets. When someone takes Jennifer's old racquet, Julia becomes suspicious. Several staff members are murdered. Additionally, the prince's cousin is kidnapped. Parents become anxious and pull their children home. Julia discovers the jewels in the racquet and decides to reach out to Hercule Poirot for help.
Very complex, spies, murders, and mystery! Enjoyable.

[delphimo_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Mystery and intrigue in The Cat Among the Pigeons. Agatha Christie introduces a bevy of teachers and female students in this foray into multiple deaths. The secret starts in a kingdom in the Middle East where Prince Ali Yusug asks his friend to smuggle priceless jewels out of the country during a revolution. The reader knows where the jewels have been hidden, but the killers keep searching. The chase for the jewels centers on an private girl’s school in England. , One of the students, Julia Upjohn, jumps into the search for the jewels and the clues on the murders. Hercule Poirot enters the investigation very late. With the help of Julia, Hercule solves the case. An interesting jump into schools, jewels, the wealthy, and the Middle East.

[figgles_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A re-read following the trail of Hercule Poirot and omlettes (see my review of "Mrs McGinty's dead"). Set in the exclusive Meadowbank girls school, where someone is killing the mistresses, this reminded me oddly of Josephine Tey's "Miss Pym disposes" with it's school setting and death in the sports pavillion. However Christie does bring in a dose of international intrigue and (using a deus ex machina from Mrs McG) only a late arrival of Hercule Poirot to solve the mystery. It's more a character study of the school and what makes a great or good school. I enjoyed it.

[laytonwoman3rd · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A later Poirot outing, involving Middle Eastern revolution, missing jewels and murders at a prestigious girls' school in England. Poirot himself does not get into the mix until late in the tale, and the real star of this show is a teenager. A good story, with decent clues, but of course Christie always saves a little something for the final reveal. Proper fun.
Feb. 2016

[elenaj-147457 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this book a lot. It's a complicated read, in that there is definitely an element of Orientalism (and also prejudice against gingers) in the plot, which is problematic - but at the same time, the book itself problematizes the Orientalism of its characters. The it's a both-and situation - the book is still problematic, but interesting for its both/and approach.

The characters themselves are complicated and interesting, and the mystery is satisfying in that there were bits of it I could figure out, but also things that stumped me.

[tomdonaghey · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Cat Among The Pigeons (1959) (Poirot #34) by Agatha Christie. This novel is primarily set at a prominent girls boarding school in the green fields of England. But there is a prolog of sorts set in a fictional kingdom somewhere in the British influenced ares of the Middle East. Knowing his reign is up due to a bloody uprising, Prince Ali gives a fortune in gems to his trusted British pilot to smuggle out of the country. The friend does just that, but in the luggage of his niece who, in a few short months, with be attending Meadowbank School, where the real story is set.
There is a well loved founder and headmistress, several senior staff members, a few old hand teachers and a several new additions to the faculty and groundskeepers. That makes a full compliment of suspects when the deaths start to occur. And it soon happens that the new gym instructor, Miss Springer, is shot dead one night in the Sports Pavilion. The police descend on the school grounds. The new gardner reveals that he works of British Intelligence. He is on the track of the missing gems and also assigned to keep an eye on the Prince’s cousin, Princess Shaista. She is a teenager who is attending Meadowbank. The princess is kidnapped, tennis rackets are swapped and Miss Vansittart, one of the long term teachers, is murdered.
Parents rapidly descend upon the school just as Hercule Poirot begins to solve the various mysteries occurring on the grounds. He manages to solve the riddle of the kidnapped princess handily, and eventually explains the murders. There are some dark secrets here, a missing fortune and the work of more than one… , well I don’t want to spoil this for you.
Although Poirot doesn’t arrive onstage until the last third of the book, the story plays out well without him. Of course, things like this only happen in the Golden Age of the Mystery, but so what. The story is a real gripper.

[souloftherose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[kaethe_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[katcoviello · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

a good book for an essay- enjoyable with a good plot and charcters. The ending was somewhat suprising and easy to summarize.

[auntie0nanuuq · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[janicseblen · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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

[antiquary_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[amphipodgirl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[pussreboots · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The political intrigue bit of the book was interesting but the actual murder mystery at the girls' school was rather obvious.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

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.

[ladyofthelodge · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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!

[deltaqueen50 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[rubyscarlett-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[bontley · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Got the distinct feeling I've read all the good Poirot's, and know I'm reading the throwaways.

[smik_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This was a plot that I was very familiar with, but a book that I had not read for a long time. I think my familiarity came from the television production which made minor changes to the main story.

This is listed as a Poirot novel but the book is almost 2/3 over when he appears, but of course he can take the credit for the final solution.

There are some very interestingly drawn characters. Honoria Bulstrode, the headmistress bore an uncanny likeness to a private school principal I worked with long ago, to the point that I remember being very surprised by the television depiction. The characters more than made up for some of the unlikely plotlines. Miss Bulstrode prides herself on her awareness and forward thinking but frustratingly misses listening to some of what a parent is telling her and this of course contains the key to the whole story, particularly to two of the murders.

Miss Bulstrode's decision to retire, and that fact that she doesn't really take into account the feelings of those she works with, is in part a trigger for one of the murders.

This is one of the plots though where the reader is pretty well informed and we play catch up with the characters until some of them work out what we already know.

[flanneryac · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

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.

[ashraks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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?

[bnielsen_30 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Ramat og Meadowbank, ca 1950
I 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.

[superphoenix_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.

[sszkutak_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

At an exclusive girls school in England a series of unfortunate events occur that threaten the teachers, students, and reputation of the school. After 2 murders and a kidnapping, the local authorities are stumped as to the murders identity. 

This is one of the few Agatha Christie murder mysteries I did not enjoy. It claims to be  a Hercule Poirot mystery, however he doesn't even enter the story until page 183. The characters were of Christie's normal assortment, but the ending wasn't as much of a twist as other mysteries. 

[navelos · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

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.

[bookmagic_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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

[bugs5 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

good book.

[bellafoxx · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This story takes place in an English Girl's Boarding School. However, it contains a foreign revolution, a young prince with a fortune in jewels and a young English pilot. The jewels are smuggled out of the country and end up in the girl's school, where someone who knows they are there and is willing to kill comes after them.

The plot seems to progress slowly at first, but the players and setting are being carefully and skillfully arranged. I was soon involved in the characters and by the way they were described could 'see' them in my mind. I figured out before it was revealed how the jewels were smuggled and where in the girl's school they were, but it was not an obvious revealing, just putting a couple of clues together. The end was a surprise, especially when someone I was sure was involved was murdered!

Cat Among the Pigeons is a perfect example of why Agatha Christie is called the Queen of Crime.

Category: Mystery
# pages: 292
Challenges: Naming Conventions Challenge - Challenge: RYOB 2009

[riverwillow · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Poirot, who comes to this story rather late, investigates two murders and a kidnapping at a girl's boarding school. Somehow the murders and kidnapping are linked to a revolution in a Middle Eastern State and a cache of jewels belonging to the murdered Emir. As always the plot is peppered with disinformation and red-herrings and, as usual the identity of the murderer is surprise