Mrs. Pollifax Pursued

Emily Pollifax, sometime CIA agent, isn't on assignment but is on alert because of a suspicious white van in her neighbourhood. Soon she discovers a young woman hiding in her closet. The young woman, Kadi Hopkirk, grew up with the son of the former president of Ubangiba, and both she and her friend are in danger. Fortunately, Kadi picked the right person's house to hide in, because Mrs. P has connections. They are sent to a safe house, a carnival, but there is concern that the safe house isn't all that safe after all...

This is a light, undemanding series. Mrs. Pollifax can be seen as a somewhat updated version of Miss Marple, trading on her grandmotherly looks to trick hard-bitten criminals into giving up their secrets. This story was show more written in the mid-1990s, so news clippings and phone calls are still the primary means of research, and people can be cut off from communication much more easily. I read this one several times in my youth and found this an enjoyably nostalgic re-read. show less

Deeply meaningful? No. Preposterous? Yes. Fun anyway? Definitely, at least for me. This is a little of a twist on the standard formula, as the plot deals almost as much with Carstairs as with his operative. This has its ups and downs -- it's nice to get a sense of how he works, but this means less time for Mrs. Pollifax to run after people (or from them) and do her meddling, and there's less action in general. (It's possible I am just missing all the assassination attempts and explosions from the Mrs. Pollifax book I finished right before this one.) This is still be a good light read, though, especially if you don't set your expectations too high.

Substance: A fair espiaonage adventure, but only just. For an operative of Mrs. P's experience, she makes several bone-headed mistakes. The author has the character explain only one of them (so it was deliberate), but the others go unremarked, which means Gilman didn't notice them herself. Coincidence of the safe place is strained.

Style: the characters are pleasant, the mayhem minimal, and the language squeaky-clean. An easy read for a bit of down-time. Depends on having readers who already know the cast and the set-up. Early books in this series seem, in retrospect, to be less cheesy, but I could be wrong.

NOTES (spoiler alert) - writers take note:
Having safely escaped her house with the endangered young lady, why in the world does Mrs. show more P GO BACK and "wait until dark" to escape again??? (Here is where the author explains that they left evidence of the girl's presence to tip off the pursuers that she had been there, so must have brought them back to let them pick up the tail).
After ditching the tail, Mrs. P parks her distinctive red car in the open parking lot of a motel near the highway. She gives their real names to just about everyone.
Inconceivable that Sammy (a key character) could be a guarded prisoner at a US University without escaping or making his plight known, and without knowing why he was sent there. Ridiculous that the otherwise-cunning villains use a very distinctive truck to kidnap one victim, drive through Mrs. P's neighborhood, and injure another operative. A conspirator expecting to be "abducted" doesn't' carry his secret diary on his person (thus giving the cues to break the case). And how does he expect to keep his presence in the "bought" country a secret forever? show less

When her second husband, Cyrus, takes a trip to the American Bar Association meeting, Mrs. Pollifax expects that the most exciting thing on her agenda will be the upcoming garden club meeting. However, her curiosity is aroused when she keeps seeing a van drive by her country home. Even more surprising, she finds a young woman hiding in one of her closets. While trying to sneak Kadi Hopkirk away from the house, Mrs. Pollifax finds herself followed. With nowhere to turn, she calls Carstairs at the CIA, who whisks her away to a most unusual safe house with a mystery all its own.

Unlike most books in the series, this one takes place almost completely in the United States. We only leave the country at the end of the book. The plot moves show more forward quickly with several seemingly unrelated threads coming together in the end. I prefer the stories where Mrs. Pollifax goes to a different country, but overall this was really interesting. If you've enjoyed other Mrs. Pollifax mysteries you are sure to enjoy this one as well. I understand the next book, Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Hunter, goes to the fictional African country of Ubangiba and continues the characters we met in Mrs. Pollifax Pursued. show less

Gilman is mailing it in now. This mystery isn’t too thrilling and is full of far too many convenient coincidences. For example, a girl on the run ends up hiding in Mrs. Pollifax’s closet and it just happens to be the same case Cartstairs is working on. They also end up spending most of the book at a carnival, and carnival literature just never rings true to me. Just too clichéd. Bleagh! Let’s hope the series regains it’s momentum.

Changing it up again, Ms. Gilman involves Mrs. Pollifax in a mission quite by accident. With references to the changing dictatorships in Africa as well as connections back to Mrs. Pollifax's time with the gypsies, this novel continues the delightful adventures of my favorite CIA agent. The best part of these novels is all the interesting characters that move in and out of Mrs. P's life.

Ah, fairs. Great fodder for odd characters and picturesque settings; and not unknown to Ms. Gilman I suspect, as this is not the only one of her books to use the setting. I've not read many of her books, but the couple that I've read have the same sort of wildly improbable coincidences: in this case the young stranger that Mrs. Pollifax meets turns out to be closely related to the international affair that her buddy at the FBI is working on; not really plausible. I think as a rule, detective writers should avoid international intrigue, as it rarely comes out with any sense of realism. Leave the thrillers to the thriller writers. In this case, the bizarrely named African country of "Ubangiba" plays an important role, and both the show more characters and plot swing back and forth between the carnival and the nation. A little disjointed; maybe a little simplistic; but worth picking up in a pinch. show less