Cat among the Pigeons
(1959)
Blurb:
My review:
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.