Cat Among the Pigeons by Agatha Christie * * *

Cat Among the Pigeons (1959) is officially a Poirot novel, but only just. This is one of those books where Poirot exists more in name than in presence. For most of the story, he is completely absent, and when he finally appears, it feels as if he has simply dropped in to tidy everything up. I’ve heard people say that quite a few Poirot novels work like this, and this one is a perfect example.

The opening of the book doesn’t even feel like a murder mystery. It starts with international politics, revolution, and stolen jewels, edging into spy novel territory. That part dragged for me, partly because it felt disconnected from what the book eventually becomes. Only later does the story settle into its main setting, a girls’ boarding school, which is where most of the novel actually takes place.

Once we arrive at the school, the cast expands rapidly. There are teachers, students, staff, and police officers, and I struggled to identify clear main characters. Two schoolgirls stand out more than the rest and end up carrying much of the story, but even then, the focus shifts constantly. Murders begin to occur, and while there are three in total, one of them barely registered for me at first. I remember realising someone had been murdered and thinking, wait, that was a murder? Who was that again?

This was another audiobook experience where my limitations as a listener became very clear. I kept mixing up the teachers, many of whom felt interchangeable to me. Everyone is a woman, everyone has very English names, and without a visual reference, my brain simply stopped cooperating. At one point, a major revelation happens about a character, and my immediate reaction was confusion rather than surprise, because I couldn’t place who that character even was.

Eventually, one of the girls decides she needs real help and goes directly to Poirot. That is when he finally enters the story, calmly gathers the threads, and solves everything. I’ve seen the television adaptation, where Poirot is present from the beginning, and I think that was a smart change. On screen, his presence anchors the story. In the novel, his late arrival makes him feel almost too convenient, as if he appears solely to provide answers we have not been allowed to reach ourselves.

Overall, this book felt like a hodgepodge. Part spy novel, part school story, part murder mystery. There are interesting ideas here, and the setting itself is memorable, but the sheer number of characters and shifting focus made it hard for me to stay engaged. The beginning dragged, the middle blurred, and the ending arrived with Poirot almost out of nowhere.

That said, it is not a bad book. There is ambition in the structure, and I can see why it works better in adaptation than on the page. For me, though, it reinforced something I have learned this year. Agatha Christie’s novels, especially the ones with large casts, are not always well suited to audiobooks, at least not for a listener like me. Also, there should be cards with the characters, names, a portrait, who they are, attached to every Agatha Christie story. That’s actually a great merch idea, I’ll sell it for 20% of the profits.

Cat Among the Pigeons is interesting rather than enjoyable. It has ideas worth exploring, but I wish the author could have had a slightly smaller cast.