Cat Among the Pigeons [Mass Market Paperback]

Agatha Christie (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1991

Published in 45 languages, Agatha Christie's worldwide popularity is phenomenal, her characters engaging, her plots spellbinding. The very exclusive Meadowbank School has never been more assured of success when the summer term begins--until their gym mistress is found murdered.

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Immensely enjoyable.' Daily Express 'To read Agatha Christie at her best is to experience the rarefied pleasure of watching a faultless technician at work, and she is in top form in Cat Among the Pigeons.' New York Times --This text refers to the Unknown Binding edition.

About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in Torquay in 1890 and became, quite simply, the best-selling novelist in history. Her first novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, written towards the end of the First World War, introduced us to Hercule Poirot, who was to become the most popular detective in crime fiction since Sherlock Holmes. She is known throughout the world as the Queen of Crime. Her books have sold over a billion copies in the English language and another billion in over 100 foreign languages. She is the author of 80 crime novels and short story collections, 19 plays, and six novels under the name of Mary Westmacott. --This text refers to the Unknown Binding edition.

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 304 pages
• Publisher: Harpercollins (Mm) (December 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061002844
• ISBN-13: 978-0061002847
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (39 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,653,555 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Agatha Christie was born in 1890 and created the detective Hercule Poirot in her debut novel, The Mysterious Affair at Styles (1920). She achieved wide popularity with The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (1926) and produced a total of eighty novels and short-story collections over six decades.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely stunning! A great find! Her best yet!, September 19, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Cat Among the Pigeons (Mass Market Paperback)

This was the very first Agatha Christie novel I read. I thought it was absolutely riveting. A great book for just about anyone, I would say. Reading this book got me hooked on Agatha Christie, though I suppose I was spoiled by it, because none of her books that I have read since then have measured up to this one. This book is a must-read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys mystery. Remember, dont assume reading this book, for it will send you in the opposite direction of the solution. you will never guess what the ending is, that I guarantee! If anyone has comments for me, or a book for me to read, email me!

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Biting off more than she could chew, September 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cat among the Pigeons: A Hercule Poirot Novel (Hercule Poirot Mysteries) (Paperback)

Agatha Christie, it is not often recognized, was a very good writer. Although her books never achieved the skin-tingling creepiness of John Dickson Carr, the best of the "Golden Age" mystery writers, and though Carr's books are perhaps more re-readable, the writing in Christie's best books (the 30s, 40s) was often as good as any other writer of the period.

She was also as good at writing cloak and dagger books as well as convention detective mysteries, though these books are not generally as well known.

"Cat Among the Pigeons" should be one of her cloak and dagger books. It veers into John Buchan territory with revolutions in foreign coutries and smuggled jewels. It is not, on the face of it, a Poirot novel. When he makes his appearance near the last third of the book, he is a welcome addition to a plot that's beginning to collapse under its own weight. Instead of being a novel of espionage or a novel of detection, it tries to be both. The result is a novel with three murders, but all of them coming late in the narrative and therefore bunched together. Because the set-up is so long, Poirot is forced to make some quantum leaps beyond his normal logic, that seem more like inspired guesses than deduction. One wonders why he was necessary at all.

The book is set at a girl's school and there are many extraneous characters. Christie helps us with her usual page of character descriptions at the start, but many of the names remain little more than names.

Christie was a good writer. She normally got to the point and didn't string plot threads together until her books got oppressive. And the two genres she tried to mix in this book could have been combined in a longer, more complex novel. An earlier introduction to Poirot might also have helped. He is anticipated, but, curiously, is never mentioned prior to his introduction and comes out of the blue.

It looks almost like two books that have run together. Christie normally didn't waste more than one good plot on a book, but here she has the jewel story, which would've made a crackerjack espionage novel along the lines of _The Secret of Chimneys_; and the murder mystery, in the last half, that would've made a fine, typical Poirot novel. A young detective who goes undercover in the book would've made a fine solver of the jewel story.

Too, many of the elements of this novel seem borrowed. The young detective's superior comes off as a lethargic version of Carr's H.M., for instance.

However, one warning: there is an element of the jewel plot that you will guess almost immediately, and wonder why Christie was so obvious with it. Further reading shows that to become more complex, and the reason she wants us to guess it early seems to be so she can take a sudden left-turn with it. But the element itself is not, it turns out, very important to the plot and she can allow us a few pages to think we're clever.

If you are a long-time Christie fan and want to read all her books, _Cat Among the Pigeons_ is a must; if you're just starting Christie, you might want to read a dozen or so others before getting to this one.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "Little Gray Cells", July 25, 2000

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Cat Among the Pigeons (Mass Market Paperback)

The Little Gray Cells strike again in this fabulous book "Cat Among the Pigeons." At a very respectable British boarding school three teachers all die while looking in the gym for some very mysterious foreign jewls put there by a man before his death. Mixed in with also a bit of spying at the beginning and Poirot's wit and wisdom this book is fabulous and has an unpredictable but fruitful ending!