After facing down hijackers on a flight to the Middle East and saving the lives of the passengers on board, a young American woman steps off the plane in Damascus in a blaze of celebrity and disappears. The CIA believes Amanda Pym was kidnapped, possibly murdered.
Masquerading as Amanda Pym’s worried aunt, Mrs. Pollifax begins her determined search, slipping through Damascus’s crooked streets and crowded souks . . . and trekking deep into the desert. Yet she is shadowed by deadly enemies, whose sinister agenda threatens not only Mrs. P. but the fragile stability of the entire Middle East. Only a miracle–or a brilliant counterplot– can forestall a disaster that will send shock waves around the world.
**
From Library Journal
Mrs. Emily Reed-Pollifax, grandmother, flower-arranger, and part-time CIA agent, is back in the Middle East. A young American has disappeared in Syria, and she has been sent to find her. After all, shortly before she vanished, Amanda Pym saved a whole airline full of people from hijackers. Accompanied by her favorite colleague, John Sebastian Farrell, Mrs. Pollifax visits an archaeological dig, explores the desert, and finds her woman. Gilman has been writing this series for more than 30 years, and Mrs. Pollifax is not quite the same, sweet old lady she once was. Who can resist a woman who alternates garden club meetings with karate lessons, makes lifelong friends wherever she goes, and invariably is able to transfer the contents of a large purse into the pockets or sleeves of any ethnic costume? Overall, this is a very relaxed, cohesive reading by Sharon Williams, only disrupted by the slightly jarring incidental music that begins and ends each side. The "cozy" spy thriller may be a nearly dead subgenre, but Mrs. Pollifax's circulation figures remain healthy. Recommended for all moderate to large popular fiction collections.DI. Pour-El, Des Moines Area Community Coll. Lib., Boone, IA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
It is so soothing to be in Emily Pollifax's presence: we know that, at any time, she may leave her tidy existence in Connecticut (complete with geraniums and an understanding husband) and venture forth, with manners and nerves of steel, to do whatever the CIA has planned for her. This time, with her rakish cohort Farrell, she's sent to Syria. An American girl named Amanda Pym has faced down a handful of skyjacking terrorists and then vanished. Mrs. P and Farrell track Amanda down with the barest of clues, through souks and tourist destinations, through the desert and an archaeological dig where an earnest young professor named Joe manages to assist with borrowed vehicles, large numbers of sheep, and other tools. It's wonderful to watch Mrs. Pollifax manage it all with clear thinking and the midlife woman's ability to fade into the scenery as someone's aunt or mum. Along the way, there's lots of local color, a bit of politics, useful phrases in Arabic, and some really elegant use of ancient Babylonian verse. GraceAnne A. DeCandido
Description:
After facing down hijackers on a flight to the Middle East and saving the lives of the passengers on board, a young American woman steps off the plane in Damascus in a blaze of celebrity and disappears. The CIA believes Amanda Pym was kidnapped, possibly murdered.
Masquerading as Amanda Pym’s worried aunt, Mrs. Pollifax begins her determined search, slipping through Damascus’s crooked streets and crowded souks . . . and trekking deep into the desert. Yet she is shadowed by deadly enemies, whose sinister agenda threatens not only Mrs. P. but the fragile stability of the entire Middle East. Only a miracle–or a brilliant counterplot– can forestall a disaster that will send shock waves around the world.
**
From Library Journal
Mrs. Emily Reed-Pollifax, grandmother, flower-arranger, and part-time CIA agent, is back in the Middle East. A young American has disappeared in Syria, and she has been sent to find her. After all, shortly before she vanished, Amanda Pym saved a whole airline full of people from hijackers. Accompanied by her favorite colleague, John Sebastian Farrell, Mrs. Pollifax visits an archaeological dig, explores the desert, and finds her woman. Gilman has been writing this series for more than 30 years, and Mrs. Pollifax is not quite the same, sweet old lady she once was. Who can resist a woman who alternates garden club meetings with karate lessons, makes lifelong friends wherever she goes, and invariably is able to transfer the contents of a large purse into the pockets or sleeves of any ethnic costume? Overall, this is a very relaxed, cohesive reading by Sharon Williams, only disrupted by the slightly jarring incidental music that begins and ends each side. The "cozy" spy thriller may be a nearly dead subgenre, but Mrs. Pollifax's circulation figures remain healthy. Recommended for all moderate to large popular fiction collections.DI. Pour-El, Des Moines Area Community Coll. Lib., Boone, IA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
It is so soothing to be in Emily Pollifax's presence: we know that, at any time, she may leave her tidy existence in Connecticut (complete with geraniums and an understanding husband) and venture forth, with manners and nerves of steel, to do whatever the CIA has planned for her. This time, with her rakish cohort Farrell, she's sent to Syria. An American girl named Amanda Pym has faced down a handful of skyjacking terrorists and then vanished. Mrs. P and Farrell track Amanda down with the barest of clues, through souks and tourist destinations, through the desert and an archaeological dig where an earnest young professor named Joe manages to assist with borrowed vehicles, large numbers of sheep, and other tools. It's wonderful to watch Mrs. Pollifax manage it all with clear thinking and the midlife woman's ability to fade into the scenery as someone's aunt or mum. Along the way, there's lots of local color, a bit of politics, useful phrases in Arabic, and some really elegant use of ancient Babylonian verse. GraceAnne A. DeCandido