Cat Among the Pigeons


Cat Among the Pigeons is a work of detective fiction by Agatha Christie, first published in the UK by the Collins Crime Club on 2 November 1959, and in the US by Dodd, Mead and Company in March 1960 with a copyright date of 1959. The UK edition retailed at twelve shillings and sixpence, and the US edition at $2.95.
It features Christie's Belgian detective, Hercule Poirot, who makes a very late appearance in the final third of the novel. The emphasis on espionage in the early part of the story relates it to Christie's international adventures and to the Tommy and Tuppence stories.

Plot summary

A revolution takes place within Ramat, a fictional kingdom in the Middle East. Before their deaths, Prince Ali Yusuf entrusts his pilot, Bob Rawlinson, to smuggle a fortune in jewels out of the country. These are concealed in the luggage of his sister, Joan Sutcliffe, and her daughter Jennifer. Unbeknown to him, a mysterious woman watches him conceal them from the balcony of a neighbouring room. Three months later, Jennifer prepares to attend Meadowbank School, a prestigious girls' prep school in England. Its staff includes Miss Bulstrode, the school's founder and headmistress; Miss Chadwick, a co-founder of the school; Miss Vansittart, a teacher for several years; Miss Rich, a teacher for eighteen months; Miss Johnson, the girl's matron; Angèle Blanche, the new French teacher; Grace Springer, the new gym teacher; Ann Shapland, Bulstrode's new secretary; and Adam Goodman, the new gardener. Bulstrode is nearing retirement, so she decides to seek a successor. As Chadwick is considered to be too old, Bulstrode is left to choose between Vansittart, whom many believe she will choose, and Rich, who is young and has lots of ideas.
One night, Springer is found by Johnson and Chadwick, shot dead in the Sports Pavilion. When police arrive to investigate, Goodman reveals to Bulstrode that he works for British Intelligence - he is at Meadowbank to track down the gems Rawlinson smuggled out, while monitoring Princess Shaista, Ali Yusuf's cousin, who is attending the school for this term. During the investigation, Jennifer complains that her racquet feels unbalanced since being abroad, and switches it for that of her friend Julia Upjohn, while she awaits a new one. Later, a woman gives Jennifer a new racquet to replace her current one, claiming it is from her Aunt Gina. However, the sharper Julia suspects this is not the case as the two girls had swapped racquets, and Aunt Gina later writes to reveal that she had not sent her niece the new racquet. The following weekend, Shaista is kidnapped by someone posing as her uncle's chauffeur, while on the night of the kidnapping, Vansittart is murdered with a sandbag in the Sports Pavilion.
While many of the girls are sent home, Julia investigates Jennifer's racquet, and finds the smuggled jewels within a hollow in the handle. When someone attempts to enter her room during the night, she quickly flees the school to tell her story to Hercule Poirot. Arriving at Meadowbank to investigate the murders, he learns that Blanche had been recently murdered with a sandbag - the police suspect she knew the killer's identity and attempted to blackmail them. Interviewing Bulstrode, he learns that she believed Julia's mother Mrs Upjohn, who had served in military intelligence, had noticed someone at the school on Parent's Day whom she recalled seeing from fifteen years ago. Poirot eventually reveals to all that the Shaista who attended Meadowbank was an imposter; the real Shaista was kidnapped by a group seeking Ali Yusuf's jewels. When the imposter couldn't find them, the group extracted her before the police presence at the school exposed her. Poirot then explains that the motive for the murders was the missing gems, whereupon he denounces Ann Shapland as the killer - she had been in Ramat three months ago and was the woman who had witnessed Rawlinson concealing the gems in Jennifer's racquet.
Poirot reveals that Springer was killed because she caught Shapland searching for the racquet, while Blanche was killed for her attempted blackmail in regards to the Springer murder. Through Mrs Upjohn, Poirot identifies her as a ruthless espionage agent known as "Angelica". Before Shapland is arrested, she attempts to shoot Mrs Upjohn; Miss Bulstrode tries to shield her, but Chadwick steps in faster to shield both and is fatally wounded. Shapland is disarmed and taken away. Poirot reveals that the second murder was not Shapland's work. Although she had killed the would-be blackmailer Mlle Blanche in the same manner to make a link between the two, she had an airtight alibi for Vansittart's killing. That was done by Chadwick, who was jealous of Vansittart as Bulstrode's chosen successor. Chadwick found her in the Sports Pavilion and struck her down in a fit of madness. Before dying, Chadwick confesses to Bulstrode. In the aftermath of the investigation, Bulstrode appoints Rich as her successor, with both focusing on rebuilding Meadowbank. Meanwhile, Poirot turns over the gems to be delivered to an English woman who had secretly married Ali Yusuf when he was a student, with Julia receiving one of them as a reward.

Characters

Maurice Richardson of The Observer of 8 November 1959 said, "Some nice school scenes with bogus sheikhs sweeping up in lilac Cadillacs to deposit highly scented and busted houris for education, and backwoods peers shoving hockey-stick-toting daughters out of battered Austins. It's far from vintage Christie, but you'll want to know who."
Robert Barnard: "Girls' school background surprisingly well done, with humour and some liberality of outlook. Some elements are reminiscent of Tey's Miss Pym Disposes. Marred by the international dimension and the spy element, which do not jell with the traditional detective side. Fairly typical example of her looser, more relaxed style."

Film, TV or theatrical adaptations

An adaptation of the novel was made for the series Agatha Christie's Poirot on 28 September 2008, starring David Suchet as Hercule Poirot. The cast included Dame Harriet Walter as Miss Bulstrode, Natasha Little as Ann Shapland, Claire Skinner as Miss Rich, Susan Wooldridge as Miss Chadwick, Miranda Raison as Mlle Blanche, Elizabeth Berrington as Miss Springer, Katie Leung as Hsui Tai Wan, Raji James as Prince Ali Yusuf, and Adam Croasdell as Adam Goodman. Written by Mark Gatiss, the adaptation featured a change in setting to the 1930s, matching that for the TV series, which meant that many of the novel's scenes set in Egypt and the Middle East, as well as those related to the British secret service had to be rewritten or eliminated. As such, the adaptation features a significant number of plot changes:
In the UK the novel was first serialised in the weekly magazine John Bull in six abridged instalments from 26 September to 31 October 1959 with illustrations by Gerry Fancett. In the US a condensed version of the novel appeared in the November 1959 issue of the Ladies Home Journal with an illustration by Joe DeMers.