REVIEW: Cat Among the Pigeons

 Cat Among the Pigeons
Author: Agatha Christie

This Hercule Poirot mystery was first published in 1959 in the UK and released in the US in 1960. It first appeared serialized or abridged in magazines in both the US and UK. 

 I had an old paperback on my Christie shelf from 1979 [Pocket Books, 210 pages]. As with most of my other aging paperbacks, the pages were very yellow and the cover had quite a bit of shelf wear. I'm sure I bought this second hand somewhere along the way. 

I listened to an audio book version while reading my paperback [HarperCollins, 2012, 6 hrs 45 minutes, narrated by Hugh Fraser] 

Agatha Christie dedicated this book to an archaeologist and his wife, Larry and Stella Kirwan. More about Larry is here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laurence_P._Kirwan  

 The basics:  Just before revolution breaks out in a Middle Eastern country, the prince and his pilot make plans to sneak valuable jewels out of the country and then flee themselves. The pilot hides the jewels in the belongings of his sister and his niece, not knowing he will be killed before he can have anyone retrieve them. The two women have no idea anything is stowed in their belongings. But.....someone else knows. Killings start at the exclusive school the niece attends. First one murder....then another. Soon Hercule Poirot is on the case....can he catch the killer before anyone else at the school dies? 

Poirot does not enter the story until almost 2/3 of the way through. For me, that was ok, as I enjoyed getting to know the investigators, the school staff, an undercover agent and the students before Poirot stepped in and took over. This tale is by no means one of Christie's strongest plots, but I very much enjoyed it!  

I found myself guessing during the first half of the book who the culprit was....and I made a choice. And....once again, I was totally wrong. ha ha.  The world is a safer place because I am NOT a detective. I would never accuse the right suspect! But, then again, real life murders aren't nearly as fancy or bizarre as Agatha Christie plots. I don't believe many people are murdered by nefarious evil doers because jewels are hidden in their belongings. Real life crime is probably much more cut and dry.   

Adaptations:

I only found one adaptation of this book --  Agatha Christie's Poirot had an episode based on this story
[Ssn 11, episode 2]. The plot was changed a bit for time and some characters were removed to adapt this to a television episode.Also, Poirot joins the story from the start. Some of the changes seemed a bit over the top and unnecessary, but I still enjoyed the episode.  

My old paperback is in the recycle bin. On to the next! 

15 novels to go! But......two of them are Tommy & Tuppence stories. I have found I just don't like Tommy & Tuppence. The spy/cozy thriller themed plots just didn't age well, in my opinion. I'm going to give myself permission to skip those two books if I don't feel like reading them.

And 3 others are not Christie's usual sort of detective novels -- they are one-offs: Pale Horse, Passenger to Frankfurt, and Endless Night.  I will give them a try. But, if I am not enjoying the story, I'm going to DNF and move on. 

Life is too short to read books I don't like.....even if Agatha Christie wrote them. I give myself permission to stop reading if it's not a book for me.