good book. ( )

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 ( )

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 ( )

It’s obvious Cat Among the Pigeons isn’t going to be a run-of-the-mill murder mystery, since it begins with a lot of backstory emanating from a mythical middle eastern country, where a revolution threatens the rule – and life – of a sympathetic prince.

But it just so happens that a couple of girls with connections to this unstable little land will be attending Meadowbrooks, an exclusive girls’ school in England, to which the scene shifts. And soon there’s a crime: the energetic, ‘athletic’ games mistress has been gunned down in the school’s new Sports Pavilion.

In terms of plotting Cat Among the Pigeons is one of Agatha Christies’ poorest efforts – Poirot isn’t introduced till the book’s two-thirds complete, and after a very, very brief investigation he unravels things in one of his longest and most prosaic monologues.

In spite of this, Cat Among the Pigeons is a lovely read. The charm of the setting and several of the characters more than offsets the lack of structure. Recommended. ( )

School Escape.

Cat Among the Pigeons is a mystery involving a tiny tin-pot country, revolution, and jewellery.

Poirot gets involved with an investigation at a very toffy girl's school, and he doesn't really expect to get involved in international intrigue.

http://notfreesf.blogspot.com/2007/11... ( )