Cat Among the Pigeons: Agatha Christie’s Poirot Mystery of Murder at an Exclusive Girls’ School
A distinguished girls’ boarding school, aimed at high society, where the daughters of influential people study. This time there are three murders of teachers and a kidnapping, and only Hercule Poirot can uncover the reasons for these terrible events.
Author: Agatha Christie (1890–1976)
Title: Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)
Format: English paperback (HarperCollins), 320 pages
Scope: Hercule Poirot novel
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/000752756X (ASIN 000752756X)
A School in Trouble
The murders put the institution in serious difficulty, and its headmistress has to win back the respect and support of many frightened parents. Jealousy, envy and greed set off a chain of events that would make anyone’s hair stand on end.
A Pupil Calls Poirot
One of the girls at the school manages to uncover part of the mystery, and when she persuades Poirot to come with her, everything begins to make sense. Poirot arrives late in the story, which gives the novel an unusual structure: we get to know the school, its staff and its pupils long before the great detective appears.
Meadowbank
The school is Meadowbank, one of the most exclusive girls’ schools in England, run by the formidable Miss Bulstrode, who built it from nothing and is now thinking about retirement. Christie takes time to introduce its world: the ambitious headmistress, the teachers with their rivalries, the pupils from rich and royal families. That patient opening makes the arrival of violence all the more shocking, as the summer term turns into a nightmare.
Revolution and Jewels
The novel begins far from England, in the fictional Middle Eastern state of Ramat, where a revolution breaks out and the young ruler, Prince Ali Yusuf, tries to smuggle a fortune in precious stones out of the country. How those jewels end up connected to a school in the English countryside is the thread that ties the whole story together. It is one of Christie’s most adventurous plots, mixing espionage with a classic whodunit.
Julia Upjohn
The pupil who brings Poirot into the case is Julia Upjohn, a sharp, practical girl who makes a discovery the adults have missed and simply goes to London to find the famous detective. She is one of Christie’s most likeable young characters, and the scene in which she turns up at Poirot’s flat is a highlight of the book.
A Late Entrance
Poirot does not appear until well into the novel. For some readers that is a drawback; for others it is part of the fun, since by the time he arrives we know the school and its people so well that we can test our own theories against his. It shows Christie, by 1959, still willing to experiment with the form she had mastered.
On Television
It was adapted in 2008 for Agatha Christie’s Poirot, with David Suchet, though the adaptation brings Poirot into the story much earlier.
Next on the List
If boarding-school mysteries appeal, Hickory Dickory Dock offers another closed community, this time a London students’ hostel.
Christie and the School Story
Boarding-school stories were a hugely popular genre in Britain, with their midnight feasts, strict mistresses and loyal friendships. Christie borrows the familiar ingredients and then gives them a dark twist: here the dangers are real, and the adults in charge are as vulnerable as the girls. Her portrait of Miss Bulstrode, a woman who has devoted her life to building an institution, is also one of the most sympathetic sketches of a professional woman in her work.
Why Read It
It combines a classic boarding-school setting with international intrigue, and Christie keeps several threads running until Poirot pulls them together. A good choice for readers who like their mysteries with a touch of adventure.
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