Book review: "Cat among the pigeons" by Agatha Christie

It was the first day of the new term in the prestigious Meadowbank Academy For Girls. It is attended by young ladies from almost whole Great Britain’s middle and high class, as well as the daughters from Europe and Middle East’s most important families. Little knew the attendants and the staff that what it could be the last term of school would be transformed in a tense period, with three deads and powerful groups in conflict which is originated in a revolution occured in Ramat, Middle East. A period that will come to an end once that Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s emblematic heroe, enters into action.  

I read this book in the University’s Library, which was near to my home. In concrete, it is the third book I read from this writer and the first where I meet the Belgian detective.  

If there’s something that I recognize from madam Christie is that she knows how to use the surprise in its whole shade of meaning, being A Cat among the Pigeons the clear example of her extraodinary narrative skill. The book mantains you at expectancy, inviting you, in a hast way, to conclude who is the culprit from the deads of Miss Springer, Miss Vansittart and Miss Blanche, due to some and other background inside the teachers group; however, you don’t expect that Poirot, who intervenes almost at the end of the book, would uncover the people who you wouldn’t expect to be capable to in front of Meadowbank’s authorities. 

The characters were very interesting; some of the teachers, like Honoria Bulstrode or Miss Springer, reminded me of my professors from the junior high due to their personalities. The detectives Kelsey and Poirot himself reminded me, in a certain way, to the lessons that I’ve received in my college days about the different types of research. I could say that Kelsey was a man of experience who is always involved in the social phenomena (in this case, in a murder), while Poirot was more of the documentary research, where he must interprete and deduce from the data obtained in the experience. 

The rythm was entertaining, though the only thing I didn’t like was the appearance of the main character almost at the end of the story. As a narrative, it could be a great choice to encourage reading in the young people, specially if it is included in the Literature program.