7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
ADVENTUROUS FUN, June 23, 1998
By A Customer
This review is from: Destination Unknown (Mass Market Paperback)
As usual, when Christie boots Poirot and Mrs. Marple, you're in for an adventurous and fun book. It all starts when a harried detective stops a girl from committing suicide and asks her to step in the place of a dead woman in order to solve a mystery. From then on you have mayhem, danger, and sweeping romance. Trust me, this is a great book--especially if you're a little bored and depressed yourself!!!
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8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rare Christie thriller, June 22, 2005
This 1955 novel is a departure from her more well known cosy series books. This one has none of her more familiar characters like Poirot or Marple, the setting is mostly the North African desert and centers on a James Bond type conspiracy complete with secret hideout and mysterious, fabulously wealthy mastermind.
Hilary Craven has been defeated by life, her daughter has died, her husband has left her and she has nothing left to live for. She has decided to leave England and in an out-of-the-way spot in Morocco end it all. Circumstances intervene and instead of a quiet end in a lonely hotel room Hilary finds herself cast in the role of secret agent.
This is a rather standard thriller type novel. Although a departure from Christie's usual fare there are still many of her more familiar motifs. The 'hero' is a single woman off on a adventure (like MAN IN THE BROWN SUIT), there is also a 'master criminal' (like the Tommy and Tuppence series or PASSENGER TO FRANKFURT) and much of the action takes place in an isolated, contained environment. As always in Christie's work the clues are all there for the reader to follow right up to the surprise ending.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A book reminiscent of its times, November 11, 2001
For those who had enjoyed children adventure books like those written by Enid Blyton or Capt WE Johns, this book would
have fit right in.
Unlike other novels by the writer, this book is not a mystery
book but an adventure book. There is no who-done-it, though
there are few clues left around, there is no crime actually defined.
Scientists from the West have gone missing. When the wife of one such scientist went on a holiday, supposedly to recover from the trauma, British agents had her tailed, suspecting she could lead them to the whereabouts of the missing scientists. But when her plane crashed and she was seriously injured, the trail appeared to go cold. Enter Hilary Craven, a suicidal woman who bore a passing resemblance. Offered a more exciting way to die in an almost certainly fatal missiong, she eagerly took the chance.
Not knowing what she could expect to find, the British agents could brief her little except to play-it-by-ear. As they hoped, she was accepted as the supposed wife, and led to be with her supposed husband. But as closely as the British agents trailed her, the adversary was a step ahead to outsmart the shadowers and Hilary found herself in an unexpected place, with even more unexpected encounters.
Would she survive, or would she be exposed as an impostor? The strangely diverse people she had for travelling companions on her way to the lair of the enemy made her wonder if the whole business was what it really appeared to be.
In Hilary, the writer had a perfect character for such a mission, a person who had no desire for self preservation, and could mold herself into another being who had a dual purpose in life, one as a impostor wife, another as an undercover agent.
To paraphrase a line from a popular song, when she fooled the others, she fooled herself as well and through the ordeal, she actually became the force which pushed others to cling on to hope, and eventually, regaining her sense and purpose of existence.
A highly enjoyable book, in the cast of adolescent adventure but written for adults.
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