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    Cat Among the Pigeons: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
    Cat Among the Pigeons: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
    Cat Among the Pigeons: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition
    Audiobook6 hours

    Cat Among the Pigeons: A Hercule Poirot Mystery: The Official Authorized Edition

    Written by Agatha Christie

    Narrated by Hugh Fraser

    4.5/5

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    About this audiobook

    Murder is part of the curriculum at an exclusive school for girls in Agatha Christie’s Cat Among the Pigeons, as the intrepid Poirot sets out to bring a stealthy killer to justice.

    Late one night, two teachers investigate a mysterious flashing light in the sports pavilion while the rest of the school sleeps. There, among the lacrosse sticks, they stumble upon the body of an unpopular games mistress—shot through the heart point-blank.

    The school is thrown into chaos when the “cat” strikes again. Unfortunately, schoolgirl Julia Upjohn knows too much. In particular, she knows that without Hercule Poirot’s help, she will be the next victim.…

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateJul 3, 2012
    ISBN9780062229595
    Author

    Agatha Christie

    Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time, outsold only by the Bible and Shakespeare. Her books have sold more than a billion copies in English and another billion in a hundred foreign languages. She died in 1976, after a prolific career spanning six decades.

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    Reviews for Cat Among the Pigeons

    4.5/5

    214 ratings42 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I bought a box full of her books for $12; a bargain! So, now I am slowly working my way through them. She stumps me every time! I didn't see this one coming at all. I love her wit and her characters. She always has a lot of foreign characters, and I find them interesting, appalling, amusing, baffling. She is really the Queen of Mystery. This mystery describes the murder of teachers at a prestigious girls school, and the abduction of a Middle Eastern princess.
    • 5/5
      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
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      Murder against the backdrop of a girl’s school, full of suspense, very well read by Hugh Fraser!
    • 5/5
      A charming narrative. I loved every minute of it, truly! Once again Hugh .Fraser is MASTERFUL as the story teller
    • 5/5
      Another great mystery by Agatha Christie! This is only my second novel from her, but I am already a huge fan! I love that I can never tell who the criminal(s) is/are until the very end in the big reveal! So satisfying. I am engaged and entertained through the whole book. The narration is great with various tonality and accents so that it is easy to track the characters instead of relying solely on names (which can get confusing when there are over a dozen characters). Excited to continue to explore this author.
    • 5/5
      Pure fun. The intrigue and set up are so well done. It’s all clear about the high stakes with the revolution and the jewels. Then it’s nothing but clear as the trail to find them takes over the story.

      Typically I don’t like Poirot novels, where he only turns up at the end. But this was phenomenal fun. His entrance made sense being held back as the story focussed on the school.
    • 5/5
      As expected, a very nice read. Just beware that—unlike in the movie—Poirot only shows up in the last two chapters of this book.
    • 4/5

      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.
    • 5/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      A fine example of Christie's ability to spin a whodunnit. This is among her better later works.
    • 5/5
      Dame Agatha does it again. You gotta love the premise - murders at a prestigious girls' school that result from international intrigue and a surprise ending.
    • 5/5
      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!
    • 2/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      good book.
    • 5/5
      Set in an exclusive English girls' school, this book is different from others but is still a fun read.
    • 3/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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: 292Challenges: Naming Conventions Challenge - Challenge: RYOB 2009
    • 4/5
      a good book for an essay- enjoyable with a good plot and charcters. The ending was somewhat suprising and easy to summarize.
    • 5/5
      This is actually my favourite Christie but probably because it combines my love of school stories with my love of detective stories! yes, it is a little predictable at times but there is still a classic Christie twist at the end.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 3/5
      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
    • 4/5
      Hercule Poirot becomes involved in a mystery at an exclusive girls's school.
    • 4/5
      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
    • 4/5
      Another Poirot, but only just. The majority of Cat Among The Pigeons takes place in a girls' boarding school, where the police (with the help of the Secret Service) must uncover the mystery of the dead school mistress and the kidnapping of a high profile student-slash-princess. There is also the case of the missing jewels, smuggled out of Ramat on the eve of the revolution, as well as the question of who will succeed the retiring Miss Bulstrode as formidable headmistress of Meadowbank...Cat Among The Pigeons was a wonderfully plotted mystery whose ending did not disappoint. By the time Poirot steps in to wrap things up, all the different threads have become delightfully muddled, until the Belgian detective steps in to unravel them all and reveal the murderer.The characters were interesting, from the rather bland schoolgirl Jennifer to the dramatic Princess Shaista, and from the hard-nosed Miss Springer to the bulwark that is Miss Bulstrode. What made this book one of my favourite Agatha Christie novels was the multifarious nature of the mystery, the different viewpoints, and the pairing of international mystery and cold-hearted killing with the setting of an English boarding school tucked away in the country. A fantastic and compelling read from the Queen of Crime herself.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 4/5
      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.
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite books!!!!!!!!!!

      Just amazing!
    • 4/5
      don't worry! no spoilers. Just a synopsis.I wouldn't rank it up there among my favorites, but Cat Among the Pigeons was quite good. Quite late in the Hercule Poirot series (1959), the great Belgian detective only appears toward the end of this one. Basic synopsis: Ramat, a fictional country somewhere in the Middle East, is poised on the edge of revolution. The leader at the time, one Ali Yusuf, knows that revolution is coming, and entrusts his friend and private pilot with a cache of jewels, giving him instructions to get them out of the country and into safe hands. Rawlinson cannot think how he's going to do this, then settles on the idea of hiding them with his sister, who his there with her daughter on holiday. But he can't think of a place that won't be searched, so he goes to her hotel room while she's out, and hides them in the best place he can think of: in the handle of his niece's tennis racket. The revolution comes, Ali and Rawlinson fly out, and both are killed when their plane is sabotaged.We then learn that the niece, Julia Upjohn, has enrolled at the Meadowbank school, an exclusive, upper-class establishment. After school starts, there are some strange happenings there, none the least of which are two murders. Another student, Jennifer Sutcliffe, had switched rackets with Julia, and thinks it odd when a strange woman comes to Julia and gives her a new raquet, supposedly sent to her by her aunt. After the murders, though, Jennifer begins to put two and two together and goes to seek help from M. Poirot, who doesn't take long to realize that they are dealing with a clever mind.I still cannot read any Hercule Poirot mysteries without hearing and seeing David Suchet in the Poirot role! The book was very well written and the mystery a surprise -- and I enjoyed it very much.
    • 4/5
      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.