Mrs. Pollifax Pursued (Mrs. Pollifax Series #11)
3.9
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5
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780449149560 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Random House Publishing Group |
| Publication date: | 11/28/1995 |
| Series: | Mrs. Pollifax Series , #11 |
| Edition description: | Reprint |
| Pages: | 240 |
| Sales rank: | 121,794 |
| Product dimensions: | 4.20(w) x 6.90(h) x 0.60(d) |
| Lexile: | 960L (what's this?) |
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Mrs. Pollifax Pursued
3.9 out of 5
based on
0 ratings.
9 reviews.
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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. 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 kidmap one victim, drive through Mrs. P's neigborhood, and injure another operative. A consirator expecting to be "abducted" doesnt' 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?
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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 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.
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Kinda dull. I prefer Mrs.P. getting bounced around like a pinball from one exotic outrageous situation to another.
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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.
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Once again, Dorothy Gilman delights with more adventures for the wonderful Mrs. Pollifax. For those of you unfamiliar with Emily Pollifax, she is a senior citizen, member of the Garden Club... and operative with the CIA. This installment finds Mrs. Pollifax discovering a young woman hiding in her pantry after noticing a white van passing her house repeatedly. The young woman tells Mrs. Pollifax that the van began following her after she ran unexpectedly into a childhood friend. He managed to tell her that he was under guard before secretly giving her a package to hold for him. Naturally, Emily decides to help her. They sneak out of the house and onto the highway, only to be followed relentlessly by another car. Mrs. Pollifax enlists her friends at the bureau to take them out of harm's way... and the fun begins. I listened to the audio version of this book and I have to give a shout out to Barbara Rosenblat, who does a marvelous job as narrator. Her many characters spring to life with her every inflection. This was a most enjoyable read!
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Mrs. Pollifax on the Run in the US
When her 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 is finding 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. Can she make sense of what is happening there? What have she and Kadi stumbled into?
Being Mrs. Pollifax, she’s stumbled into quite a lot. Coincidence might be a little higher than normal in this book, but that’s always been a staple of the series, and it didn’t really bother me here. It does appear to be wandering with no point for a while, but everything does come together at the end. Carstairs and Bishop play a higher than normal roll in the book, and I enjoyed seeing them in action. All the characters are wonderful, new and old alike.
I seem to remember being a bit disappointed when I first read the book almost 15 years ago, but I can’t figure out why now. Maybe it was because Carstairs drove the climax and Mrs. Pollifax didn’t? If that was the case, it was actually set up that way from the beginning of the book. Or maybe it was because most of the book takes place in the United States with them just leaving the country for the climax. Now, I like it for the break in the formula.
Whatever the case, I enjoyed it very much on this reread. Fans of Mrs. Pollifax will delight in another wonderful adventure.
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This Mrs. P story was a nice change. On US soil instead of off somewhere else.
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