Mrs. Pollifax Pursued

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

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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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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

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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.

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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

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part of these novels is all the interesting characters that move in and out of Mrs. P's life.

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Mrs. Pollifax finds a girl hiding in her closet and tries to return her to her hope in Manhattan, but it ends up being a race for their lives and into a safehouse that is a carnival!! This time Emily brings the C.I.A. into the situation, rather than them bringing her in.

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

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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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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.

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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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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

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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.

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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

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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 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.

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