Customer Reviews

Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

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I really enjoyed Mrs. Pollifax and the China Station. For folks who don't know who Mrs. Pollifax is, she's a 'sweet little old lady' who just happens to work for the CIA and have a brown belt in Karate. The stories are always filled with adventure, suspense, and yet, are for the most part wholesome and 'cozy.'

In this installment, Mrs. Pollifax is sent to China disguised as a tourist, to help rescue a prisoner from a labor camp. Armed with very minimal information and a secret partner, Mrs. Pollifax and friends, must find a way to extricate Missing Mr. " X" from China, without getting arrested, detained or worse... Killed!

This was a great installment in the Mrs. P. series. Although some of the minor characters were irritating: i.e. Jenny, and 'perfect all-knowing' Iris, I liked seeing Mrs. Pollifax in action, and her interaction with her co-agent was amusing.

Definitely a must for Mrs. P. Fans.... A fun, light mystery sure to entertain just about everyone.

Mrs. Pollifax is thrilled when Mr. Carstairs, her boss at the CIA, gives her an assignment to China. As luck would have it, Mrs. P. has recently completed a course in Chinese history, so she is primed and ready to go. She joins a tour group and is told that one of the other group members is actually a CIA agent who will become her partner later on. She tries unsuccessfully to detect her future partner and is very surprised when the agent's identity is revealed. She sees a lot of interesting Chinese countryside and tries to get acquainted with other tour group members. Later in the book, she rides a runaway horse and encounters some rough stuff from a Russian spy. This book, as the others in the series, is charming, and a little romance adds some pizzazz to this one.

This was the second Mrs. Pollifax novel I've read and I was not disappointed. If you're at all a fan of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple - I think you'll really enjoy Mrs. Pollifax. If you've never read Mrs. Pollifax - begin with the first in the series so that you understand how she came to be working for the US Goverment - that book is: The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. This book, is charming overall. The author does an excellent job hiding the identity of Mrs. Pollifax' accomplice - and enemy - until the time is right for us to know. The suspense is very good. I love the small unfolding romances as well. My only complaint, if you can call it that, is that Mrs. Pollifax is able to resolve something tricky (I won't tell you which thing and ruin it for you - don't worry) by almost luck at one point - I would have prefered her to use her brains and resourcefulness more in some instances. But - it is a minor quibble - she's so charming - I'm eager to read more of the series! Hope you enjoy it too. :)

Dorothy Gilman rarely ceases to amaze with her talent at keeping the pages turning. In "Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station," Gilman once again creates plausible situations that never fail to catch the reader off guard. Again it is nearly impossible to decide whom to trust. A very fun read!

This is another good story about my favourite 'Spy'. How Ms. Gilman thinks of these, I cannot imagine, but there has only been one of them (so far) that wasn't as good as the others. But here, our Emily goes trundling around a strange and largely hostile, country, with all the insouciance one has come to expect of her. A rather abrupt and slightly disappointing ending, but it would probably be impossible to extract Emily any other way.

Mrs. Pollifax must "unscrew the inscrutable" in her first journey to Communist China--although in fact the Chinese turn out to be less inscrutable than her fellow Americans for most of the book. Even her handlers, Carstairs and Bishop, admit that the job is dangerous--but Mrs. P has "always been so curious" about the place that she leaps at the chance to go there. It seems that a certain man is in a labor camp in the far western regions of the country, though a clerical error has resulted in his captors not being aware of his true identity, and the CIA, which fears that the Russians may want him, is eager to extract him before they can (or befire the Chinese realize who they've got). Mrs. Pollifax is to join a guided tour with several of her countrymen (one of whom will also be a CIA agent) and make contact with an informant who can provide a map to the camp. She must also carry some supplies for the escapees to use when they make their break for the border. At first all goes well, and Mrs. P amuses herself by trying to decide which of her fellow tourists is feeding her a cover story for the benefit of any eavesdropping Celestials. The Chinese people, in fact, she finds delightful, warm and hospitable. But when the other agent is actually revealed, she's stunned. Only then does she discover that Carstairs himself was betrayed by a double agent who apparently isn't double any more, and that she and her unwilling partner are in peril of their lives from more than just the Chinese government.

This volume in the ongoing series rather messes up continuity: the last one Mrs. Pollifax on Safari was set during or directly after the Watergate scandal, but this one, which flatly places itself as a year later, refers to events of 1979. Nevertheless Mrs. P continues sprightly, creative, and brave, and her venture into the world's most populous nation should offer thrills enough for all her fans.

Our daughter sent us a used copy of our first Mrs. Polifax book, saying she'd heard "people Mom's age" would enjoy it. I sampled it and got pulled into the story by the interesting situations and enjoyable characters. I liked it so much I looked on Amazon.com for more books in the series. Now "Mom" has read five of them (I've only read three so far, but I'm looking forward to more). They are cleverly written, easy to read, and lots of fun. We'll order the rest of the series. I'd suggest reading them in the sequence they're listed in front of each book.

ALL of the Mrs. Pollifax mysteries are great reading! There are 14 books with Mrs. Pollifax and I am not finished with all 14 just yet. I have 4 more to go and can't put them down! They move fast and keep you interested, making it difficult to pause! A friend loaned me eight of the books and I had to buy the other six! I just had to have them! I wish there were more! A little old grandmother, smart as a whip, and karate expert, too! Who'd guessed it? Picture of innocence - but not so! She's a woman to be reckoned with! And a true heroine, too! Not your typical international spy!

The book was shipped quickly, in good condition and at a great price. I heartily recommend the seller!

I would recommend this to anybody who likes a humor and intrigue at the same time. Mrs. Pollifax is the rarest of main characters you will ever see.