Customer Reviews

Passenger to Frankfurt

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(9)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(15)

 

 

First off, let me say that i am a huge and dedicated fan of the great Dame Agatha Chrisite. I have read almost all her books, and i think she is the greatest mystery writer ever.

However, this rather fantastical effort is a departure from her usual murder mysteries into the murky world of espionage and the discovery of an anarchistic conspiracy run by neo-Nazis. The net effect is an amateurish and boring plot burdened by superfluous characters and a lack of exposition.

The main character seems to be likable Sir Stafford Nye, who is actually quite an interesting persona, until he is inexplicably dumped halfway through the book in favour of a fly-on-the-wall observation of various Cabinet meetings that are essentially redundant in telling the reader that the danger faced is very serious and mysterious. There are also long, abstract and irrelevant dialogues between mono-dimensional characters that make Agatha Christie seem at sea with a genre that is apparently too big for her.

When the mastermind behind the conspiracy is uncovered, we see a brief flash of the old Christie, as the culprit is someone whom the reader never suspects. However, the epilogue, instead of explaining the culprit's motives or the fates of the various conspirators is instead a humorous yet unsatisfactory marriage between Sir Stafford and another character.

Several times during the narrative, I found the courage and fortitude to continue only by telling myself that the ending would be as brilliant and fulfilling as all her previous novels, yet once again, I was thoroughly disappointed with this sad excuse for a novel

Agatha Christie wrote several novels that deal with international organizations trying to take over the world. While I prefer her works set in the cozy country estates with families full of suspects, this is an enjoyable foray into this type of her work. Tones of neo-Nazism, drug trafficking, international finance, and a scientific discovery that could change the world are some of the elements that make up this story.

The characters are interesting: Sir Stafford Nye, an unambitious member of the British diplomatic corps caught up in this caper; his great-aunt Matilda, an aristocratic lady reminiscent of Miss Marple in that she has a remarkable memory of things that happened long ago; a young girl with three identities who fears for her life, and a young man rumored to be the son of Adolph Hitler are among the characters that come to life in this novel.

If you like international intrigue, stories about spies and world domination, I think you will enjoy this book.

While Agatha Christie is best known for her mysteries featuring Hercule Poirot and Jane Marple, she also tried her hand at other stories that weren't straightforward mysteries. Such is the case with "Passenger to Frankfurt", a novel that could more appropriately be termed a thriller, but also one that doesn't quite live up to Dame Christie's usual standards. From the very beginning, the novel has an unusual premise, but as the story progresses, the plot becomes too sidetracked with tangential stories and characters.

Sir Stafford Nye arrives at Frankfurt Airport due to a fog delay; as he sits waiting for his flight back to England, he speaks with a mysterious young woman who has a proposition for him - she needs to get into England unnoticed or she will be killed, and wishes to borrow his passport and cloak. Sir Stafford Nye, wishing for a little adventure, accepts the deal, only to come up against more questions than answers on his return. He seeks out this passenger to try to find out the truth, only to find himself swept up and recruited for some political intrigue. Always game, Sir Stafford Nye agrees to help out this mysterious woman, and his government, to unveil a plot that reeks of world domination.

And that is exactly where the plot of "Passenger to Frankfurt" gets sidetracked: the first portion of the book is excellently crafted and mysterious, a testament to Christie's ability to weave an opening that keeps you in suspense, but the story begins to fall apart after Sir Stafford Nye accepts his new role as a secret agent. The main problem is that these two characters who've been developed so far almost completely disappear from the book, and the reader becomes a third wheel at meetings of important government people as they try to discover the mastermind behind this conspiracy. Instead of her well-crafted and intricately ingenious mysteries, the last half of "Passenger to Frankfurt" lacks almost any intrigue, and reads like a convoluted castoff from the Cold War, with a plot that involves neo-Nazis living in Argentina and striking up the world's youth to invest in total anarchy.

There are some intriguing things that get said along the way: perhaps Christie just bit off more than she could chew with this novel, which reads too often like disparate storylines. The resolution comes too quickly, there is no build up to the epilogue, and very little to tie all of the threads together. I can very easily understand why many people do not like this book, but as a fan of Christie's writing, it is interesting to see her take on a different style.

One of Christie's few complete disasters. The plot is a muddled spy story presented with near-desperate sincerity but little coherence or believability. As a story, this is Christie's absolute worst, though _Postern of Fate_ is sadder in terms of writing skills.

Why do so many people hate this book? Probably because, having been spoiled for decades by the Queen of Crime, they narrow-mindedly refuse to indulge an old Lady and grant her the little pleasure of what she herself called 'an extravaganza', a 'story that is in essence a fantasy and pretends to be nothing more'. Cut her some slack, will you?
One must acknowledge that witnessing the growing unrest in the world, violence, anarchy and plane-hijackings gave the 80-year-old author ideas and a certain fear of upheaval of the world order, which resulted in her sitting down and bringing this story to paper. That the villain is German is understandable I guess, having lived through two world wars, Mrs. Christie was certainly entitled to prejudice. I like the characters in the book and the places in which the story unfolds, especially when imagined as in an early 70's movie. As for the plot of a sinister organisation plotting to dominate the world, is it really implausible? Let me quote again from the books introduction, where it says that 'most things that happen (in the book) are happening, or giving promise of happening in the world of today. It is not an impossible story - it is only a fantastic one.' In writing this story Agahtha Christie held up a mirror to what she saw and thought the world had become or was in danger of becoming , and when you think about it, times have changed, but the world has not - at least not for the better. This story is timeless.

this book goes practically nowhere at all, and is slightly confusing really, as to whose side everyone is on, etc.

But, it is not the bad book that most of these reviews seem to make it out as.

In all honesty, it really doesnt deserve the five star rating i have given it. In fact, four stars is a more accurate estimation of it's quality, but i have given it five stars to "raise the average". because it really doesnt deserve the two and a bit stars which it currently has.

This book has some real plusses. It is brilliantly written. The language Christie uses is probably the best of all her novels. It is more well written and literary than some of them. There are some great characters (Stafford Nye, Mary Anne, Countess Wauldsausen (who we see unfortunately little of)) who really inspire interest in what is a rather perplexing plot. Perplexing why? Because there is actuall no real plot. It goes almost nowhere, and seems a bit pointless. Just written as a device to air some of Christie's views on the way society is sliding down the drain.

Which is where the book does the major credit. The social observations, passages about the state of the world, its climate, its politics, the attitude of its people, its governments, is intensely interesting. Christie's take on the new "youth" is very interesting. Anarchy and rebellion ar ethe order of the day, and they do permeate this book with a strange sense of fear. Fear for the future, and what it holds for us in this strangely unstable world.

This plot has a huge scope, exploring diplomacy, politics, forms of rule, government, vision for the future, and the state of the world. In that, it is truly excellent. The foreboding, doom, hopelessness of things is brought across well. This book also has a high count of people "just trying to do the right thing" in spite of so many people who disagree with them.

so, as a plot driven novel, its not good. But, as a novel driven by ideas and notions about the state of world politics, then it is excellent. It's interesting, thought-provoking, with some great characters, and a nice prose style.

A very different Christie book, and for all it's faults, it is one of the "great" ones. (As opposed to one of the "excellent" or "good" ones.)

First off, let me say that i am a huge and dedicated fan of the great Dame Agatha Chrisite. I have read almost all her books, and i think she is the greatest mystery writer ever.

However, this rather fantastical effort is a departure from her usual murder mysteries into the murky world of espionage and the discovery of an anarchistic conspiracy run by neo-Nazis. The net effect is an amateurish and boring plot burdened by superfluous characters and a lack of exposition.

The main character seems to be likable Sir Stafford Nye, who is actually quite an interesting persona, until he is inexplicably dumped halfway through the book in favour of a fly-on-the-wall observation of various Cabinet meetings that are essentially redundant in telling the reader that the danger faced is very serious and mysterious. There are also long, abstract and irrelevant dialogues between mono-dimensional characters that make Agatha Christie seem at sea with a genre that is apparently too big for her.

When the mastermind behind the conspiracy is uncovered, we see a brief flash of the old Christie, as the culprit is someone whom the reader never suspects. However, the epilogue, instead of explaining the culprit's motives or the fates of the various conspirators is instead a humorous yet unsatisfactory marriage between Sir Stafford and another character.

Several times during the narrative, I found the courage and fortitude to continue only by telling myself that the ending would be as brilliant and fulfilling as all her previous novels, yet once again, I was thoroughly disappointed with this sad excuse for a novel

"Passenger to Frankfurt," when it was first published, was advertised as Christie's 80th book for her 80th year. It was one of the last books she wrote, and it was published when she turned 80. It should be one of the last books of hers that the reader should take on, because it is not classic Christie, but is rather a look inside her head, one a devoted fan like me is eager to see. She says, "There is the insidious cult of permissiveness, there is the increasing cult of violence. Violence not as a means of gaining money, but violence for the love of violence." It was written in the late 60's, published in 1970, at a time when there was a great deal of youth unrest in the world. At that time there were also rumors that Hitler may not be dead. As she usually did, she wrote for the times in this book. It is a spy story about the possibility of Hitler's surviving son trying to follow in his father's footsteps. It talks about wicked people taking advantage of the naive youth to take over the world. It has a lot of characters who tend to be unconnected and is much slower than usual. Nevertheless it was a smashing success at the time. As always her writing is skillful and thoughtful. It is well worth reading, but is better for the reader who has already fallen in love with Agatha.

When I was a teenager, I loved this book. It's not standard for Christie, no, but it had such a wonderful feeling of hidden menace, and a larger world just beyond the reader's sight. Stafford Nye was extremely likeable; I wish Christie had written more about him.

I always felt that the book was an abridged version of what it should have been, but it triggered my imagination in such a way that I'll always be fond of it.

This 1970 novel is definitely not one of Christie's usual cozy style of mystery. It is, instead, a thriller type of story involving a world-wide conspiracy of Neo Nazis that has much more in common with James Bond than Hercule Poirot.

While returning from a trip to far east for the Foreign Office, Sir Stafford Nye was approached by a young woman who had an interesting request. She wanted to borrow his passport and distinctive traveling cloak to escape killers who were stalking her. Sir Stafford agreed to help her which set a strange and exciting adventure in motion. Within a few weeks Sir Stafford found himself on a trail that lead throughout England, to Germany and beyond. His fellow travelers included the beautiful woman that set things in motion, scientists, diplomats, mystery men and his Great Aunt Matilda and one of her old school mates.

Even though this is a departure from Christie's usual work it is still a well crafted story, full of red herrings and interesting quirky characters as one would expect from Dame Agatha. We are also treated to a visit from Mr. Robinson, the shadowy figure of international intrigue that has appeared in some earlier works.