The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax

The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax / Dorothy Gilman
NY: Doubleday, c1971. 
240 p.

I've also been reading quite a few mysteries and suspense books in the last while, so will move to some reviews of this reading streak. Beginning with another in a series I've discovered fairly recently but am loving. This is book 3 in the Mrs. Pollifax series, and I was lucky enough to find a copy of this original hardcover at the thrift store just when I needed it :) So of course I read it quickly. 

In this episode, Mrs. Pollifax is asked to courier some passports to Bulgaria, where she will have to deliver them to an operative who needs to get some political targets out of the country. Easy peasy! But is it? No, it never is when Mrs. Pollifax is on the job. And this time, she is carrying some contraband, totally unknown to her until the end. 

She realizes that she (and her backup man) are being watched, and dangerous things begin to happen. Luckily for Mrs. Pollifax, she makes connections wherever she goes and they always turn out to her benefit. 

This one was frenetic and really enjoyable! Mrs. Pollifax meets some men in an underground cell, and spurs them to action. They travel to a distant cave where she almost meets her own end, and then back in the city, she leads a siege on one of the most impregnable prisons imaginable, to rescue a young American student who is being held as part of a larger plan. This part was both thrilling and hilarious, a common blend for these stories. 

Mrs. Pollifax uses her common sense and her appearance of innocuous innocence to once again foil plans that she wasn't even supposed to be mixed in with. But with experience she is getting tougher, as well. This book is unexpectedly lovely in parts, too; Mrs. P has a conversation with Tsanko, her contact for the passports, while they are waiting in the darkness before their siege. It is about love, and peace, and human connection, and it's thoughtful and moving. 

I thought this was a strong addition to the series so far, and look forward to more.