The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (1966)

Emily Pollifax in the "twilight of her years" - a phrase she herself would deters - lives alone at the Hemlock Apartments, New Brunswick, New Jersey. Her children up and gone, every volunteer occupation tediously similar, and a "respectable widowhood" awaiting her, Mrs P. decides she is definitely ready for a change. And what Emily Pollifax decides, Emily Pollifax does. The recruiting officer at the CIA would have saved himself a lot of unnecessary time and embarrassment if he had realized that from the start. If Mrs. Pollifax had chosen spying as a second career, there was little or nothing that could stop her. She is, as the CIA and its enemies are soon to find out, quite unexpected. ( )

light mystery yarn about a senior citizen spy; good thing to get one back in the reading mood

An easy, humorous and exciting read - great if you're stuck inside on a rainy day (of which we've recently had numerous here in Lancashire!).

Mrs Pollifax is amusingly naïve, but Gilman shows from the outset that there is steel inside her. While there are some extraordinary coincidences and misunderstandings involved in getting Mrs Pollifax off on her adventures, these are not allowed to persist, and so credulity is not excessively strained.

As others have said, the story is a kind of mash-up of the spinster-detective and cold-war spy genres, and Ms Gilman does a sterling job of it. Mrs Pollifax is endearing and eccentric, without being a caricature - you do feel her actions are natural and understandable for an ordinary, and resourceful, person thrown into extraordinary situations (with the necessary sprinkling of luck and good-fortune, of course).

I'll certainly look out for more in the series. ( )

Of course, not great literature, but a wonderful escape, fun to listen to while driving, walking, and working on my cross stitched pillow! Nothing in the story was credible, but that was all to the better, since I had to suspend all critical faculties from the get-go! ( )

I love the entire series. Are there flaws..sure, but I don't care. Over all they are superbly well written and just plain make you feel good. Old fashioned feel good books...they aren't that easy to find. Treat yourself to a shortcut during your search and try the Mrs. Pollifax batch first. There's more than a baker's dozen just waiting to be discovered. ( )