Christie, Agatha - Cat Among the Pigeons (1959)

Review by Nick Fuller

3/5

Easily one of Christie's strangest plots: a revolution in the Middle East, a fortune in jewels and espionage lead to the murders of three teachers at the most exclusive girls' school in England. Despite these far-fetched and incongruous elements, the book moves at a snail's pace: easily the first third is a rather talky prologue to a plot that is Christie-by-numbers. Of the three murders, the second two (including a blackmailing Frenchwoman) are apparently sequels to the first. Excessive coincidence and wild improbabilities are required to make the plot function, and the racquet business is dreadfully obvious, but there is a moderately interesting alibi.

Note that Poirot appears very late and does very little - this is probably the most obvious example of his being required by the publishers, and of Christie's growing impatience with him.