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Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station (Mrs. Pollifax Series Book 6) Kindle Edition
The cheerful Mrs. Virgil (Emily) Pollifax of New Brunswick, New Jersey, is once again plunged headfirst into a hair-raising CIA mission.
Posing as a tourist in China, Mrs. Pollifax meets the sinister challenges of the Orient to safeguard a treasure for the CIA . . . and all but loses her life in the bargain.
“Filled with adventures—and misadventures—but through it all Mrs. Pollifax is triumphant.”—Booklist
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherFawcett
- Publication dateMay 28, 2014
- File size2892 KB
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Editorial Reviews
Review
“Filled with adventures—and misadventures—but through it all Mrs. Pollifax is triumphant.”—Booklist
From the Publisher
to try the books, because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to relate to mysteries featuring a suburban grandmother
working for the CIA. But because my grandmother's taste in literature has always been impeccable,
I decided to delve into Mrs. Pollifax's adventures. I began with THE UNEXPECTED MRS. POLLIFAX, the first
in the series, and immediately found them delightful. Mrs. Pollifax is just the kind of grandmother I'd
love to have: resourceful, intelligent, somewhat sly, and, of course, a secret CIA operative. Her
adventures take her to all corners of the globe: from an authentically described communist China
(MRS. POLLIFAX ON THE CHINA STATION) to an exhilarating safari across Africa (MRS. POLLIFAX ON
SAFARI). I've thoroughly enjoyed joining her on her adventures, and intend to read them all. I recommend them
to everyone who's interested in learning about different countries and cultures--and, obviously, espionage!
--Malinda Lo, Editorial Assistant
From the Back Cover
PORTLAND TELEGRAM
Once again, Mrs. Pollifax, the cheerful little woman with the flyaway white hair and a penchant for old hats is plunged headfirst into another hair-raising CIA mission. Posing as a tourist in China, Emily Pollifax meets the sinister challenges of the Orient to safeguard a treasure for the CIA...and all but loses her life in the bargain.
About the Author
Dorothy Gilman (19232012) is the author of the Mrs. Pollifax series, which began with The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax. In 2010 Gilman was awarded the annual Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Bishop put down his own coffee cup and grinned. He thought this must be how she appeared to her garden clubs—a cheerful, cozy little woman with fly-away white hair and a penchant for odd hats and growing geraniums—and he thought it a pity he couldn’t share with those garden clubs his first meeting with her in this office, just after she’d led an escape party out of Albania against incredible odds, and had been whisked back to this country by jet. She had sat in this same chair, wearing the voluminous clothes of a goat-herder’s wife, her face as dark as a gypsy’s after three days adrift in the Adriatic, and what she’d accomplished had staggered them all. He sometimes felt it was impossible to reconcile these two Emily Pollifaxes; his grin deepened as he said, “You’re suggesting we dispense with pleasantries and get on with it?”
“Well,” she pointed out, “it’s difficult to believe you’ve brought me here to discuss the weather. Really difficult,” she added with a twinkle, “considering that you sent a private plane for me, which I must say was dashing of you.”
“We do try to be dashing when we can,” Bishop told her gravely. “It counteracts the soiled trench-coat image that—” He stopped, remembering Mrs. Pollifax’s reproachful telephone calls to him when a scandal about the CIA surfaced. But that wasn’t our department, he would tell her, and point out that he really couldn’t relay her indignation to the White House. He supposed that it was this quality in her that led Carstairs to brief her more carefully than he did his other agents, but her responses were never more surprising to Bishop than the fruit cakes she sent at Christmas, which usually incapacitated the entire department, their brandy fumes lingering almost as long as the hangovers.
Suddenly he remembered why Mrs. Pollifax was here, and what Carstairs was going to propose to her, and he felt that old clutch of horror that always hit him when she sat innocently on the edge of her chair, all eagerness and delight at a new assignment, and always chiding him for his concern. It was rather like an attack of violent indigestion, and he wondered if Carstairs was feeling it too; if so, he gave no evidence of it. Not yet at least. He would eventually, of course; he always did.
“The job we have in mind,” Carstairs began smoothly, “is innocuous enough on the surface, Mrs. Pollifax, but because of the country involved could be extremely dangerous—extremely—if you came under suspicion.” He gazed at her thoughtfully. “Which is why I wanted you here personally, to make sure you understand this, and to ask whether you still feel—are still interested—”
“What country?” she promptly asked.
“The People’s Republic of China.”
She drew in her breath sharply. “But how incredibly exciting,” she breathed, “and what an amazing coincidence! I’ve been so curious, so interested—”
“Extremely dangerous,” Bishop heard himself say firmly.
Her eyes widened. “But you say that about all the assignments,” she told him, “and surely we’re friends with China now?”
“Exactly,” Carstairs said lightly, “which makes it all the more shocking if any suspicions should be aroused. But we have some business there that simply can’t be handled through diplomatic channels, and we’ve decided to chance it.”
“Chance what?” asked Mrs. Pollifax cheerfully.
“Roughly speaking,” he said, “we want to get a man out of China, but to do this we must first get a man into China—an agent, of course—to accomplish this. Your job, if you take this on, would be to provide cover for this agent, and at a certain point approach a certain native—not an agent—who’s known to have some helpful information.”
Mrs. Pollifax said warmly, “Well, that sounds easy enough to—”
Bishop interrupted her. “Of course it sounds easy and innocuous,” he said indignantly, “because he hasn’t mentioned that in making this contact in Xian you become absolutely expendable—all to guard the identity of someone else—and that this man in Xian, who is not an agent, could just as easily turn you over to the People’s Security Bureau, for all we know about him.”
Carstairs looked at him incredulously; in an icy voice he said, “My dear Bishop, all our people become expendable when they take on a job, you know that and so does Mrs. Pollifax. I’ve already told her it’s dangerous.” He turned back to her and said stiffly, “Bishop is right, of course, and you would be risking exposure at that point, but to this I would add that it’s of value to us that you do not speak Chinese, and would not speak it either in your sleep or under drugs; that you’ve endured interrogations before, and have shown a remarkable ability to sustain the role of Aggrieved and Misunderstood Tourist. I have every hope that such talents wouldn’t be needed, of course, but still—despite Bishop’s inexplicable attack of sentiment,” he said, giving him a quelling glance, “he is perfectly right.”
“Sorry, sir,” Bishop said lamely. “It’s just that—”
“Yes,” said Mrs. Pollifax, and drew a deep breath. “You’ve made it quite clear, I think—both of you—but of course I’d love to go. As soon as you said China—”
Damn, thought Bishop, she’s going to go: Carstairs’ blood pressure will be up for days, and I’ll have to resort to tranquilizers. This is always what happens after she goes because all hell usually breaks loose around this woman and we have to sit here in Langley Field, Virginia, and worry about her. How could we have forgotten this?
“Good—we did hope you’d take this on for us,” Carstairs was saying heartily, “because I can’t think of anyone who would provide a better aura of—well, respectability, but at the same time be resourceful enough to make a contact that is not going to be easy. You can leave in ten days, on June first?”
Mrs. Pollifax smiled. “You once gave me exactly one hour’s notice. Yes, I can leave in ten days.”
“And Cyrus Reed,” put in Carstairs. “I hear that it’s turned into quite a romance between you two, and that you’ve been seeing a great deal of each other since you met. Will he object to your doing another job for us?”
“Cyrus,” she said, neatly fielding both comment and question, “is in Africa until June sixth. He left last week to visit his daughter. The daughter,” she reminded them, “who was on safari with us last summer and met and married a doctor there.”
Both of them nodded. In any case, thought Bishop, the question had been a mere courtesy; both he and Carstairs knew very well that Cyrus was safely out of the country and could make no objections.
“But what is it,” asked Mrs. Pollifax, “that you do have in mind?”
“We’ll get to it, shall we?” said Carstairs, and left his desk, moving to the opposite wall where he pulled down a large map of the People’s Republic of China. “Our particular problem, as I said,” he began pleasantly, “is that it’s almost as impossible to get an agent into the country as it is to get someone out. Especially since the man we want to rescue—let’s call him X for the moment, shall we?—is in a rather inaccessible area. Actually,” he added casually, “in a labor camp.”
“Labor camp!” exclaimed Mrs. Pollifax.
“Labor reform camp, and roughly in this area.” Picking up a pencil he described a circle that enclosed a startling number of miles in the northwest corner, a region colored yellow-brown on the map, denoting desert and other inhospitable possibilities, with only the names of a few cities or towns interrupting the space.
“But that’s a great deal of country,” pointed out Mrs. Pollifax, taken aback. “And you don’t know exactly where?”
“Not precisely, no,” said Carstairs. “That’s what we hope you’ll find out from the man you contact in Xian, who spent several years in that same labor reform camp. His name, by the way, is Guo Musu. He’s a Buddhist, and they suffered rather extravagantly during the Cultural Revolution. Many of their temples and monasteries were taken over or destroyed, and the monks sent off to communes or labor camps, where in either case they were given massive doses of Mao’s thinking … gems such as book learning can never be considered genuine knowledge, and how heroic it is to give oneself totally to one’s Motherland—and of course to Mao. Because of this we hope he’ll prove sympathetic enough to pinpoint the location of that camp for you.”
Product details
- ASIN : B00K4C4GWC
- Publisher : Fawcett (May 28, 2014)
- Publication date : May 28, 2014
- Language : English
- File size : 2892 KB
- Text-to-Speech : Enabled
- Screen Reader : Supported
- Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
- X-Ray : Enabled
- Word Wise : Enabled
- Sticky notes : On Kindle Scribe
- Print length : 225 pages
- Best Sellers Rank: #131,479 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #230 in Lawyers & Criminals Humor
- #4,421 in Cozy Mystery
- #4,637 in Women Sleuths (Kindle Store)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Dorothy Gilman is the author of thirteen Mrs. Pollifax novels, beginning with The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax and continuing through Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist. She lives in Westport, Connecticut.
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A critic described this book as a page-turner, but I disagree, especially about the beginning of the book. There was a little too much emphasis on scenic descriptions - the color brown was mentioned too often and sometimes the book sounded like a travel brochure. But the subject of culture shock and communication obstacles was handled well. The trip put a lot of pressure on the little group of travellers, and, as one character put it: "Pressure can go either way... it creates diamonds, it also creates explosions." All in all a fun read.
By 1977 when Mrs Pollifax on Safari was published, Gilman was 54yo, but Mrs Pollifax had only aged 4 years since first meeting Farrell in Albania in Unexpected Mrs Pollifax.
Mrs Pollifax on the China Station 1983 #6 explores the vast expanse of the Taklamakan dessert west of Xian, crossing the Himalayas beyond Tibet. China had only recently opened to the US and maintained the architectural and social rigidity of Russian Communism, square buildings, furniture placement, uniforms. If you threw away a ballpoint pen in the trash, it would follow you to the next hotel and be returned with deep apologies. Chinese could not travel within their own country without visas. One was assigned a job, even if that was not what one was trained in, or was in a city distant from one's spouse and children.
By 1985 Mrs Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha #7 had only progressed a few months, where Gilman's personal outlook had matured dramatically; fewer than 5 years in Mrs Pollifax' life elapsed since the Unexpected Mrs Pollifax #1.
A first reading of the series is laughable, gentle CIA-lite. A rereading as I am doing now highlights entirely different aspects of the write particularly the contemplations of an individual reassessing a past which cannot be changed and gathering resources to face acceptance of continual loss, of personal physical capacities, family, friends with age. [ASIN:B0092GBLHY How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading] Mortimer Adler.
The Mrs Pollifax series is autobiographical for Gilman, who began growing her own vegetables and medicinal herbs, and reflecting on a lifetime of accumulated wisdom for Mrs Pollifax Unveiled in 2000. Gilman died 2012 age 88 of Alzheimer's. Two movies were made of Mrs Pollifax 1971 Pollifax-Spy with Rosalind Russell, 1999 Unexpected Mrs Pollifax with Angela Lansbury who went on the popular Murder, She Wrote series.
Fifty-one years separates 1966 from 2017. My reader's perspective is more attentive to musings on life purpose and meaning. I notice Gilman's sensitive reflections of Mrs Pollifax on the end of life, her gratitude for a "good run" as she prioritizes "he has his hells to face, as I have mine" no longer worrying about others' challenges when she has to focus on her own survival.
The China Station is an inflection point among the novels, from comedic to more self reflective though Mrs Pollifax ages less than 5 years. Perhaps as Gilman crossed the 70yo boundary she began to contemplate the desperately important implications of compassion and character in the face of human suffering, politics, extremism and hopelessness among the displaced, unemployed and global conflict. Gilman began growing medicinal herbs and writing of them.
The editor devilishly uses scansion to hide clues among paragraphs, distracting attention from facts which may be read in more than one manner similar to The Westing Game (Puffin Modern Classics) Newberry Medal winner by Ellen Raskin.
Mrs Pollifax series is best read in order, with narratives growing in intensity in shared wisdom with author age.
Mrs Pollifax: Three Complete Mysteries (The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax, The Elusive Mrs. Polfax) covering #1 Albania, #2 Turkey, #3 Bulgaria.
MRS. POLLIFAX, Three Complete Mysteries, A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax; Mrs. Pollifax on Safari; Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station #4 Switzerland Zabya, #5 Zambia 4 years after Unexpected Mrs Pollifax, meets second husband Cyrus a retired judge and Farrell from Unexpected Mrs Pollifax, #6 Xian amidst the Terra Cotta warriors, forced labor re-education camps, non-persons, authoritarianism.
#7 [ASIN:0449209830 Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha] diamonds, drugs, torture
#8 Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle how she recovers from PTSD, Thailand Shan, Akha hill tribe, opium, siblings with same genes different choices
#9 Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish Morocco Sahara Berbers Sufi poet Rumi gratitude, empathy, January one year after Golden Triangle
#10 Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief Sicily hired assassin freed from prison with wealth bribes influence
#11 Mrs. Pollifax Pursued billionaire buys a country, money unsufficient for satisfaction, wealth progresses to desire for power; there is no perfection but effort expended toward compassion, equality of access, moral decisions shapes character of authentic leader vs tyrant
#12 Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer (Mrs. Pollifax Mysteries) Africa 8 months after Mrs Pollifax Pursued
#13 Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist
#14 Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled published in 2000 when Gilman was 77.
Highly thought provoking series for me as Mrs Pollifax muses to herself, and sometimes mentors younger travel companions. 5*
Her writing captures the imagination - it is easy to become immersed in the story and environment. The locales are described in detail and are clearly extensively researched. But my favorite element is the characters. It is easy to become invested in them - for them to become flesh and blood in your mind - and to feel like the good ones are cherished friends by the end of the story.
The series is best enjoyed in order (at least the first time you read them), and while each book can stand alone, I do strongly suggest reading them in their intended order so as not to miss anything.
1. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (this is a foundational book - it is important to read this first)
2. The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax
3. The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax
4. A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax
5. Mrs. Pollifax on Safari
6. Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station *this book
7. Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha
8. Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle
9. Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish
10. Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief
11. Mrs. Pollifax Pursued
12. Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer
13. Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist
14. Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled
It is important to note that the first book was written in 1966 and the last in 2000. Geopolitics having changed significantly since then, do not be surprised that some of the stories may seem out of step with the current political climate. Rest assured it does not impact the quality or enjoyment of the story.
The other small series (2 books) that I enjoy are the Madame Karitska Books - The Clairvoyant Countess, and Kaleidoscope. I have read a few of her standalone novels (A Nun in the Closet, The Tightrope Walker, The Maze in the Heart of the Castle, Incident at Badamya, Caravan, and Thale’s Folly) but not all so I can’t comment on those.
To summarize, I have enjoyed all of her books, but Mrs. Pollifax will always be dear to my heart. I am sad that Ms. Gilman passed away in 2012 so there will be no new novels from her to brighten my day. I hope you receive as much pleasure reading her novels as I do!