Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax
    The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax
    The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax
    Audiobook6 hours

    The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax

    Written by Dorothy Gilman

    Narrated by Barbara Rosenblat

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    Emily Pollifax is one of a precious few gray-haired female sleuths who solve their cases through unflagging determination, moral courage and wisdom that comes with age. In The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax, Emily answers the call of that "nice Mr. Carstairs" to go to Istanbul as a courier and search for a missing agent.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRecorded Books, Inc.
    Release dateApr 8, 2011
    ISBN9781461810506
    The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax

    More audiobooks from Dorothy Gilman

    Related to The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax

    Titles in the series (14)

    View More
    View More

    Related audiobooks

    Mystery For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Four Of A Kind

      May 3, 2023

      Four Of A Kind
      4 min read

    • Article

      Adventure On The HIGH SEAS

      Jun 17, 2020

      Adventure On The HIGH SEAS
      10 min read

    • Article

      Ice cream DREAMS

      Jul 28, 2021

      Ice cream DREAMS
      8 min read

    • Article

      Adventure On The HIGH SEAS

      Jun 17, 2020

      Adventure On The HIGH SEAS
      10 min read

    • Article

      When the HEART MELTS

      Feb 23, 2022

      When the HEART MELTS
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE

      Mar 1, 2023

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      LeTteR Bocks

      Aug 4, 2022

      ◻PLEASE find attached this trademark from a box of eggs, which appears to show a chicken lifting its leg to crack off an eggy one. Susan Butcher, Australia ◻FORMER Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been criticised for meeting an ex-KGB agent without h

      13 min read

    • Article

      Echos

      Jan 10, 2019

      Before Corrine’s husband abandoned her in Berlin, he liked to say that her name reminded him of the word “corrupt.” But ending in a twist rather than a split. Her last name was the French word for “swimsuit” but he never mentioned that. This seemed s

      17 min read

    • Article

      Anything Goes For Me And My Chums

      Aug 25, 2021

      In my neck of the woods, it’s back to normal. How’s it with you? On the bus and the London Underground, I am still wearing a mask, but other than that, everything is much as it was before the pandemic struck – except that my office-worker friends rea

      3 min read

    • Article

      J. Jezewska Stevens

      Dec 15, 2017

      The party was a failure. I can’t even tell you what a failure it was. There are no words. Only a great pain in my chest when I wake up. On the veranda. It’s better when I sit in the chair. Oh, but then I can see around. The gauzy curtains, pushed by

      15 min read

    • Article

      What Just Happened?

      Apr 9, 2021

      What Just Happened?
      4 min read

    • Article

      G’day – And Goodbye

      Aug 25, 2021

      G’day – And Goodbye
      4 min read

    • Article

      Venice Peach

      Oct 2, 2023

      1. THE DRESSMAKER AND THE HIDDEN SOLDIER by Doug Gold (A&U) WWII thriller about Kiwi soldier and Greek dressmaker 2. SUMMER FAVOURITES by Vanya Insull (A&U) Recipes from @vj_cooks 3. TE REO KAPEKAPE: Māori Wit and Humour by Hona Black (Oratia) Having

      4 min read

    • Article

      Life In The past Lane

      Aug 27, 2021

      Life In The past Lane
      5 min read

    • Article

      Spring To Action

      Feb 18, 2021

      Marsali Taylor sails an Offshore 8M, Karima S. She’s a dinghy instructor and author of The Shetland Sailing Mysteries starring liveaboard sleuth, Cass Lynch. Spring is a tough season for non-sailing spouses; it turns their peaceful world upside-down.

      3 min read

    • Article

      Life After Death

      May 27, 2022

      Life After Death
      14 min read

    • Article

      Good Books Make Good Fuel

      Sep 21, 2022

      Is it time to burn my books? My wife has already told me she is getting rid of the lot the moment I go. So, given the cost-of-living crisis and the rocketing price of fuel, is this the year for me to clear the grate and set a match to all my treasure

      3 min read

    • Article

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE

      Mar 1, 2023

      The Other Side Of THE FENCE
      6 min read

    • Article

      My Alma Mater

      Jun 29, 2022

      My Alma Mater
      7 min read

    • Article

      6667 Hollywood Boulevard

      Jul 2, 2019

      6667 Hollywood Boulevard
      7 min read

    • Article

      Ice cream DREAMS

      Aug 4, 2021

      Ice cream DREAMS
      8 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax

    4/5

    400 ratings22 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Oh, how I love the adventures of Mrs. Pollifax! This nice elderly widow certainly gets herself into some interesting situations as an unlikely undercover CIA agent. Can't wait to read the next one!
    • 4/5
      What a fun listen! I have a new (old) series to enjoy & Dorothy Gilman has a new fan, as does Barbara Rosenblatt whose narration was spot-on & thoroughly entertaining. If you like cozy mysteries, my guess is you'll enjoy this one.
    • 4/5
      The amazing Mrs. Pollifax returns in this second romp of an espionage thriller, and the results are charming! Just returned home from church one Sunday morning, our elderly heroine is reading a story in the newspaper about the defection of a notorious Communist agent, when Mr. Carstairs rings up, asking her to undertake another mission for him. It turns out that Magda Ferenci-Sabo, about whom Mrs. Pollifax had just been reading, was no Russian spy after all, but one of the CIA's top assets, and that she must be retrieved from Istanbul at all costs. Previous agents having failed, due to their high profile, a complete unknown like Mrs. Pollifax is need. And so our flowered hat-wearing grandmother (who now studies karate!) heads to Turkey, wear she soon finds herself involved in a most unexpected high stakes adventure, on the run from both police and assassins, and making all sorts of unlikely friends...I adored these books as an adolescent, reading them again and again, and they have certainly been living up to my memory of them, on this recent reread! The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax is every bit as charming, humorous and exciting as I remembered it being, and I breezed through it in one sitting. Dorothy Gilman certainly manages to pack quite a bit of dramatic incident into a novel that is only 176 pages in length! With spies and assassins, codes dating back to WWII, long-long and newfound lovers, unexpectedly resourceful allies, and a caravan of gypsies, there's no shortage of fascinating characters and engrossing plot developments. As with the first book, I found the settings quite interesting - the caravan travels through Cappadpocia at one point, and the description of the region is such that I have always longed to visit it, a feeling greatly increased by the Turkish children's book, The Secrets of Cappadocia, that I read many years later. The depiction of the gypsies/Romany was romantic, utilizing a number of stereotypes about their supposes mystical abilities, but it was also sympathetic. Highly recommended to anyone who read and enjoyed The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax.
    • 3/5
      This story, like the first in the series and the only other one I have read, is completely, totally unbelievable. You really have to suspend disbelief on this one. I don't care; it's a fun read. Murder, but not especially gruesome. An older woman who is once again called by the CIA to be a courier. This is a quick, light story with a lot of a heart. A bit tangled but that's to be expected. I really enjoy reading lighter books between more serious and sometimes more depressing ones, and this one fits the bill.
    • 2/5
      Frustrating, as from time-to-time it drifted up to 3 stars from me, and then it would irritate me back down again. The protagonist is pleasant, there's an occasional surprise, and some of the written observations are mordant or amusing, but there are so many negatives here. The lead does virtually nothing but exist while plots whirl around her, she is aided by a succession of unlikely helpers who are themselves aided by a succession of unlikely helpers, and there are coincidences that arrive late and strain credulity (I don't mind early coincidences--an early coincidence can be the basis for the plot--but a late coincidence just seems contrived). It's not as funny as it thinks it is, nor as suspenseful, etc. In short, it's a bit of a time-waster of a book.

      (Note: 5 stars = amazing, wonderful, 4 = very good book, 3 = decent read, 2 = disappointing, 1 = awful, just awful. I'm fairly good at picking for myself so end up with a lot of 4s).
    • 4/5
      Once you get beyond Mrs. Pollifax's naivete: her willingness to go anywhere on a moment's notice, for example, you can't help but fall in love with the retired widow. Never mind the fact that the last time she agreed to go somewhere (spur of the moment) on such an unknown trip she almost died several times over. When you catch up with Miss Emily Pollifax in The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax you learn she is now taking karate lessons. Small reveal (and big bummer for me), Mrs. Pollifax doesn't use her newfound martial arts skills but she does fly a helicopter! See what I mean? Most of Mrs. Pollifax's feats in Turkey are nothing short of incredible, but the overall story is fun. Can't wait for the next one!
    • 5/5
      Wonderful series, now in the "historical" area as it is set in Turkey in the 1960s. Suspend disbelief for a while and enjoy the twists and snarks and giggles as this grandmother has another compilation of harrowing experiences as a "part-time courier for the CIA".I bought the audio, and Barbara Rosenblatt is a fantastic narrator!
    • 4/5
      American grandmother and ceaseless volunteer Mrs Emily Pollifax is still working as a spy for the CIA. In her second job for The Agency, Mrs Pollifax travels to Istanbul to make contact with Russian spy, Magda Ferenci-Sabo, who is a double agent for the Americans. She's not the only spy in Turkey trying to capture Magda and when she finds herself under arrest she makes use of friends and allies to try to locate Magda and get her safely out of the country. There are some great secondary characters in this book including a shy young Englishman, a clan of gypsies and a Turkish desperado.

      I love Mrs. Pollifax. It's great to see an older woman heroine, especially one who uses her head to get herself and others out of sticky situations. This is a series I enjoy reading after a particularly gruesome murder mystery or when I just want to sit and relax with a book that doesn't need so much attention. The series is also narrated by one of my very favorites.....Barbara Rosenblat.

      The books have a less dated feel than I expected when I first picked them up. I believe this one was originally published in 1970 but I feel like it's held up for being almost fifty years old. If you're looking for a gritty mystery this is not the one for you, but if you get a chance you might want to enjoy a wonderful romp with the charming, wise, and enterprising Mrs. Pollifax.
    • 3/5
      Mrs Pollifax (Emily), a widow with grandchildren, was living a safe but boring life in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Until the CIA asked her to become a courier, that is. Well, she had a wonderful adventure and is now back in New Brunswick, attending Garden Club meetings and taking karate lessons. But a phone call from her CIA contact, Mr Carstairs, quickly changes her plans. He has another assignment for her; she is to go to Istanbul, Turkey – now.

      This is a delightfully imaginative (and highly improbable) cozy series. Mrs Pollifax is a marvelous main character – steadfast, quick thinking, polite (unless someone needs a karate chop to the throat), and courageous. I love how “proper” she is, making her forays into dangerous situations both humorous and fraught with peril. Her ability to make friends of total strangers and gather about her a variety of allies makes for a colorful cast of characters and some unexpected turns in the plot. A fast-paced, easy read. I’ll definitely keep on with the series.
    • 5/5
      What a romp! If you like your mysteries oh so serious and realistic, this isn't for you. Mrs. Pollifax is just as nice (and as practical) as she was in her first adventure. There are twists and turns enough for a roller coaster ride. If you need a breezy, light, cozy mystery, then try this one.
    • 3/5
      Having read a few of the later Mrs. Polifax, I'm fairly confident Gilman's writing gains more depth, in the same way that Polifax gains skills as she gains experience.If one longs to visit Turkey, this book serves as a nice travelogue. The book served its purpose: a nice break from the professional reading I've been engaged in.
    • 1/5
      tried to read this several times, bounced off of it. Just not my cuppa
    • 3/5
      Mrs Emily Pollifax is an unassuming American grandmother who recently became a spy for the CIA. In her second job for The Agency Mrs Pollifax must travel to Istanbul to make contact with a Russian spy, Magda Ferenci-Sabo, who is a double agent for the Americans. However with half the world’s spies descending on Turkey to be the ones to capture the apparently defecting woman to learn her secrets trouble soon finds Mrs Pollifax. Unperturbed she makes use of a series of unlikely allies that she meets in her journey across Turkey while finding and losing Magda Ferenci-Sabo several times and enduring several harrowing near-death experiences.

      Despite having an entirely ludicrous premise I found myself thoroughly enjoying this story. Mrs Pollifax is a delightful character who is able to face whatever life throws at her with remarkable aplomb and she befriends a wonderful assortment of quirky people on her journey. There seems to be a decent enough flavour of the time period (my memories of 1970 being those of a 3-year old I can’t be certain) without the book being too dated and there is definitely a sense of the real Turkey depicted. Although it was 20-odd years later I’ve taken the same kind of bus rides as Mrs Pollifax took across that marvellous country and had much the same experiences as were described in the book.

      Although unrealistic, the plot hangs together very well and even though you are certain things will all work out for Mrs Pollifax in the end there are enough escapades along the way to offer a decent amount of suspense. If you like realism in your crime fiction then this story isn’t for you but if you like the Amelia Peabody novels or the occasional guaranteed happy ending after a smashing adventure then I can recommend this book. The narrator for this audio version adds an extra half point to my rating as it was excellent and really helped me get lost in the story.
    • 4/5
      I love Mrs. Pollifax. It's great to see an older woman heroine, and one as plucky, intelligent, flexible and caring as she. In this installment, she goes to Turkey, meets a double agent, Gypsies and a confidence-lacking young Englishman, among many others, and survives kidnapping, a scheming Frenchman, and other disasters. This is one of my "comfort" books that I read over and over when I need to forget my worries for a time.
    • 5/5
      What could be better than a little old lady in a funny hat that wants to apply for work as a spy being almost accidently sent on a mission by someone who thought she was already a spy and of course she is perfect... Everything goes wrong and right. Fun. Fun. Fun.
    • 3/5
      Both this series and this book in particular make for fun, short reads while transporting one to various foreign countries and introducing one to different ways of life as well as to more than a little touch of hardship and danger. Maybe using Mrs. Pollifax as a CIA courier is a stretch, but it is nice to see an older woman as a competent protagonist. And as Mrs. Pollifax so ably puts it: "It was the unexpected that brought to these moments this tender, unnameable rush of understanding, this joy in being alive. It was safety following danger, it was food after hours of hunger, rest following exhaustion, it was the astonishing strangers who had become her friends. It was this and more, until the richness of living caught at her throat, and all the well-meant security with which people surrounded themselves was exposed for what it truly was: a wall to keep out life, a conceit, a mad delusion." We should all be so lucky to feel this in our lives.
    • 5/5
      My favorite of the Mrs. Pollifax books, because her personality is in full bloom, and because the author paints such an interesting picture of Turkey, in 1970. The picture is a bit romanticized (it wasn't quite that exotic, even forty years ago) but she gets a lot of it right, and conveys much of the fascination of the place. As usual, appealing subsidiary characters add to the mix.
    • 3/5
      The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax is the second in the series, and a rather late discovery for me. It wasn't until I was rereading a later book in which Emily is enjoying letters and postcards from people she met on past CIA missions that I realized there was a gap in my knowledge. In this case, a letter from Colin Ramsay and wife, whom she meets in this story (and who meet each other). Like all of her other stories, this one is a fairly action-packed, breezy, positive adventure. Emily Pollifax is a nice, unassuming grandmotherly figure who relies largely on her judgment of character and chance (but always essential to the plot) acquaintances to achieve her missions. Once again, her job is to act as courier, delivering passport and other essential items to a fugitive double agent who made international news by appearing and then disappearing from the British Embassy in Istanbul. During the flight to Turkey, she meets an interesting young lady who asks her to check in on Colin Ramsay, the black sheep of the family. The job isn't so simple after all, and Emily and party become fugitives across the length of Turkey against the odds. This is the book where Mrs. Pollifax meets the Gypsy queen (Dorothy Gilman definitely has a thing for gypsies and the paranormal). She is also held prisoner by the bad guys at least once.As always, events proceed unpredictably from the viewpoint of her CIA supervisors back in Virginia, but rather predictably from the reader's perspective. Of course that apparently random person turns out to be important, of course it all ends happily ever after, and of course Emily pulls miracles out of her elaborate hat after her bosses give her up for dead again. All of this is standard for Mrs. Pollifax stories, which are essentially G-rated action stories about spies as nice guys, where young and unattached straight people settle down and live happily ever after once the crisis is past. These stories are light and fluffy and feel-good and would make great movies, except for the fact that Hollywood doesn't give lead roles to gray-haired women, particularly for action movies.
    • 5/5
      The thing that is so appealing to Mrs. Pollifax is that she is so open to new experiences and people and she takes help where it is offered. In this installment, we get a glimpse of Turkey and the Gypsies - all romanticized a bit, but still full of interesting flavor. Even on a third reading, the story stands up as entertaining.
    • 3/5
      Mrs. Emily Pollifax, grandmother (aka CIA agent), travels to Turkey in this second book of the series. Her assignment is to assist a recently defected Soviet spy by providing her with a passport and money so she can leave the country. Mrs. Pollifax makes contact with the spy, but she quickly disappears without taking the necessities with her. It's up to Mrs. Pollifax to find her and get her to the United States.My experience and pleasure reading cozy mysteries has grown this past year, but I'm not up to where I'd like to be. This one didn't help the genre, but it didn't hurt it either. It was just okay. I enjoyed the minor twists and turns of the plot, but there were a few action scenes that crossed my line of acceptance. They ended up catapulting the book into a realm of foolishness that I just don't appreciate (not my thing). Other than that, I did enjoy the travel to Turkey with Mrs. Pollifax. With her kind disposition and genuine caring nature, she draws people towards her, including me. Despite my lack of enthusiasm towards the book, I do look forward to meeting up with her again. (3.25/5)Originally posted on: "Thoughts of Joy..."
    • 4/5
      These books are such quick reads, but they are absolutely endearing. Mrs. Pollifax, the plucky retired and widowed woman who decides to become a spy in the advanced years of her life, is fantastic. I love the way that she baffles all of the experienced staff with her success, just when they thought that everything had gone to hell. I love how she wears hats with huge flowers on them. I love that she is unafraid of scruffy rogues with guns met in a graveyard in the middle of the night. Yes, the plots stretch the limits of our belief, but far less so than in James Bond. Hurrah for Mrs. Pollifax!I liked this second entry in the series better than the first. This time around, Mrs. Pollifax is flown to Turkey. The CIA know that it is dangerous, but it is imperative that they send a spy who doesn't look like a spy, and who is not connected with the spy network in any way. They are trying to recover a double agent, defecting from Russia, and the spy communities from countless countries are involved. Mrs. Pollifax is the logical choice for the CIA. Of course, the simple meet-and-exchange-travel-documents plan does not work out, and once again Mrs. Pollifax's life is imperiled as she discovers new allies, befriends the natives, and travels across the country to fulfill her mission. Since much of the fun of these novels are the ups and downs, the surprises along her path, I won't say anything more about the plot. I highly recommend this series for those days when life has worn you down. A happy pick-me-up in a book.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoied how Mrs. Pollifax was able to stay calm and think her way out of trouble, I want to be like her when I grow up.