Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha / Dorothy Gilman
read by Barbara Rosenblat
Ashland, OR: Recorded Books, 2011, c1985.

This volume of the Mrs. Pollifax series carries on shortly after the events of her last adventure. In this one she is asked to go to Hong Kong, make contact with a CIA asset to check on his being alive and well, and then come home. Does the trip turn out this simply? Of course not! 

She gets involved with the situation, going to the home of one of the suspicious characters and befriending the housekeep to get as much gossip as she can. She is given a lovely statue of a Buddha in the small shop she enters to try to find this asset -- mainly to get her out of there, but it turns out it's a rather important statue, leading to someone searching her room at night while she is supposedly sleeping (but she's not, really) and eventually to her kidnapping by the baddies. 

At this point the story takes a darker turn. She and a couple of others have been kidnapped and they are being held in a warehouse of sorts by the villains. They are an international group of random men, all part of an anarchist terrorist cell. They've been involved in this by someone in Hong Kong who wants to see the "rightful" ruler of China restored. This all goes back to the upheavals of Chinese history and politics, and the British rule of Hong Kong, and the fears of it reverting to China. This was written in the 80s so this was something yet to happen, although within in a little more than a decade after the story was set. In any case, the bad guys are taking this very seriously. 

During Mrs. Pollifax's lengthy kidnapping, she engages in her usual efforts to talk to the others. This time only one of her fellow captives has any feeling for her. Another tries to sabotage the communications that the terrorists are using, and in a shocking turn is shot for it. This leads to the feeling of darker elements of the story, and a stronger sense of danger. Mrs. Pollifax herself endures torture as they try to get information out of her. And her salvation comes from the ideas of two amateurs at the other end, who've joined the American agents trying to find her. 

I found this one politically astute, relevant, and very thrillerish. I loved the descriptions of Hong Kong, of some of the eccentric characters who Mrs. Pollifax befriends, and the relationships between old and new agents. It was a strong book in the series, with lots of intrigue and mystery. I really liked it, it felt well plotted and engaging.