Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled

Another wonderful, dangerous adventure for Mrs. Pollifax and Farrell in the deserts of Syria! A nondescript young American lady ends a skyjacking stand-off and mysteriously disappears. Someone needs to find her. Enter Emily Pollifax! Great characters and exciting adventures!

Emily Pollifax looks like everyone's harmless maiden aunt, but in reality, she is one of the CIA's top operatives. The resourceful Mrs. Pollifax has risked her life many times while on assignment for her country. Mrs. Pollifax teams up with freelancer John Farrell on an investigation into the disappearance of Amanda Pym in Syria. Ms. Pym was a fifteen-minute media superstar when she allegedly stopped an airplane hijacking from succeeding. Witnesses last saw Amanda enter a vehicle that waited for her at the Damascus Airport.

Farrell and Mrs. Pollifax land in Syria where the government places a tail on the duo. However, they quickly elude their shadow in order to obtain information that provides them with the first clue in their hunt. They soon enter the Syrian Desert where they meet American archeologist Joe Fleming. Joining the two operatives on their quest, Joe and the two spies seek an elusive individual who seems to be undergoing a rigorous training for a mission that has world implications.

Mrs. Pollifax is the international equivalent of Jessica Fletcher. Her latest adventure, MRS. POLLIFAX UNVEILED is filled with warmth and wit that will send readers to seek previous novels in the series. The lead protagonist thrives on adventure and action yet retains calmness during the dangerous storms she encounters. Farrell retains his enigmatic personality that keeps fans wondering about him. The story line flows smoother than silk while keeping the audience's attention from start to finish. Although this is a long running series, Dorothy Gillman keeps her tale and its characters as fresh as if they are making their debut. This ability is why readers will want another novel starring Mrs. Pollifax and Farrell.

Harriet Klausner

There is a question whether an American woman is alive or dead in Syria. The CIA summons Emily Pollifax and another free-lance hand, John Sebastian Farrell. They travel to Syria. It seems that rumors in the bazaar indicate that Amanda Pym, the person concerned, is still alive after having been kidnapped six weeks earlier. She had foiled some hijackers and entered a wrong car directly after the event when being interviewed by news organizations.
When Mrs. Pollifax and Farrell arrives in Damascus and checks into the hotel, Mrs. Pollifax finds a note. She had been advised by her superior, Carstairs, that help could be expected. The note directs themn to go to the Citadel. Things really heat up as Farrell gets taken into police custory and Mrs. Pollifax, having been struck in the head with something, makes her way to an archaeological dig, a caravansary, to find the next clue. Traveling the following day in a borrowed land rover in search of the shepherd who may have seen Amanda Pym, Mrs. Pollifax and her guide, Joe Fleming, enter an area of the desert where snipers are boing trained. They find a burned American passport that may have belonged to Amada Pym.
Farrell arrives at the camp reporting that he had been held by a nefarious group, not the police at all, who seemed to know everything about Amanda Pym. Determining to view the encampment at night, to try to see what the shepherd saw, they look through the binoculars and see Amanda Pym among the people in camouflage garb who were supposed to be snipers in training. Farrell comes to know more about Amanda Pym by piecing together pieces of her journal found in the vicinity of the burned passport. The means Mrs. Pollifax, Farrell, and Joe Fleming employ to separate Amanda Pym from the others I care not to disclose. I will say that the solution involves the aid of sheep and golden hamsters. The working out of the details both in Syria and elsewhere proves to be extremely exciting and delightful from the point of view of the reader.

Mrs. Pollifax is an unlikely candidate for a CIA spy.
Carstairs: "...Mrs. Pollifax, would you be free to leave on Sunday?
Emily Pollifax: "For Syria!" In her mind Mrs. Pollifax ran over her engagements and nodded. "I'd need only cancel Garden club on Monday, and my karate lesson on Tuesday."
In this Mrs. Pollifax book, she and Farrell are sent to Syria. A woman, who'd stopped some hijackers dead in their tracks, was missing. Mission: to bring Amanda Pym back to the United States.
Despite a beating each, Mrs. Pollifax and Farrell both got off easier than usual. This book, while still quite good, wasn't up to the standard of the other Mrs. Pollifax books. I've been reading Dorothy Gillman for over ten years, since "The Unexpected..." appeared in Reader's Digest "Condensed." While disappointed, I'm glad I read it. While I'm glad I read it, I'm also glad I borrowed it and didn't purchase it.
It was pretty good; I'll continue to read Dorothy Gillman's series.

Just when Mrs. Pollifax begins to get restless, Bishop comes to her home to offer her another adventure for the CIA. This time she and her old friend Farrell are asked to find a young girl named Amanda who rescued 200 people from being hijacked on a plane and then disappeared. There are the requisite number of chases, strange-looking people following them, adventures and misadventures for this book to join the others in the enjoyable Mrs. Pollifax series. The one thing that puzzles me is why Dorothy Gilman had her heroine marry Cyrus in one of the early books and then have him serve as background, always off on his own business when Emily does another assignment for the CIA. Perhaps she received negative feedback from readers when Cyrus accompanied her on one of her adventures, but it seems too bad to shove such a nice man into the background.

After having read all the previous Mrs. Pollifax books I had been looking forward to reading this one, but found it rather disappointing. While the plot sounds like that of the other books the execution of the story is not up to the usual standard. It lacks the potential to identify with the characters, and even worse Mrs. Pollifax and Farell are both fairly flat characters. The new characters (Amanda and Joe) are a bit more lively, but still two dimensional. And the usual bunch of minor characters that give the other books their liveliness are either missing or just make a perfunctionary appearance. This book reads like a draft for the story before the characters get fully developed. Not a bad bad read, but not really worth buying.

Mrs. Pollifax first sucked me into her slightly off-kilter espionage adventures back in the early 80s. As a teenage boy, I was proud to relate to such a spunky spy--who cared what the other kids thought!
I picked up "...Unveiled" with fond memories and found myself quickly drawn into Mrs. Pollifax's simplified, but fun, world of spies and intrigue. Sure, the story is somewhat predictable, but the fun level is perfect for those looking for a light weekend (or single evening) read. Mrs. Pollifax never tries to be more than she is, she just keeps plugging away at saving the world one adventure at a time.
Thanks Dorothy Gilman for not taking yourself too seriously.

I have read all of the Mrs. Pollifax books. This one just seemed more of the same "formula" writing. It almost seemed as if I could sense Ms. Gilman's tiring of this character. I was ready for a new location (enough of the middle east already!), complex and interesting plot with lots of interesting characters....this book seemed to fall short on all counts. I certainly hope the author has another great one to pull out of her pocket....

Dorothy Gilman never disappoints with Mrs. Polifax....I just wish the adventures and series never ended. Entertaining from beginning to end! A must read and then you fall in love with Mrs. Polifax and her world all over again!

I always enjoy books in the Mrs. Polifax series and this is no exception. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this latest book from Dorothy Gilmam. I highly recommend it to any mystery readers who enjoy novels about both espianoge and mystery, with travel too!