The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

I am not much of a mystery reader but my local library has a rather large collection of them. The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman was an unexpected, fun mystery. Mrs. Pollifax is a retired, bored grandmother and decides she would much rather be a spy than the perpetual volunteer of garden clubs. She travels to CIA headquarters and volunteers. It just so happens the CIA director needs a courier in Mexico City, a simple assignment that goes awry. Mrs. Pollifax ends up kidnapped in Albania. Her escape is entertaining, and well, unexpected.

The story was published in 1966, during the Cold War so expect to read some characterizations which would not be politically correct for our day. If you can look past it though, the story is really quite fun to read. This book is the first of a series about Mrs. Pollifax. I may read more of this series later. The Pollifax mysteries are still in print, so they shouldn't be too difficult to find.

Book Rating: 4 stars. For a mystery it is pretty good.