A Palm for Mrs. Polifax
A summary and review of Dorothy Gilman's novel
Dorothy Gilman has written yet another fantastic mystery starring Mrs. Emily Pollifax, the gardener/hospital volunteer/international spy of the CIA.
Mrs. Pollifax is desperately trying to fold herself into the lotus position while doing her morning yoga when she gets an urgent call from Mr. Carstairs, her boss from the CIA. Nine pounds of plutonium have been stolen from America and England, almost enough to make a small atom bomb. The CIA is working with Interpol, and their only lead is a package that was mailed to the Hotel-Clinic Montbrison outside of Geneva, Switzerland. Mrs. Pollifax is sent to Montbrison to replace Fraser, an undercover agent who mysteriously fell off a cliff near the hotel. Mrs. Pollifax has a contact at Montbrison, an Interpol agent named Marcel who is posing as a waiter. By day she subtly interviews the guests, including a skittish young boy named Hafez and a charming, slightly arrogant young man named Robin. By night she wanders around the hotel with a Geiger counter disguised as a jewel box, desperately trying to find the plutonium. She finds several distractions along the way, such as discovering the fact that Robin is a jewel thief. And she can’t help but be intrigued by Hafez and his sickly grandmother, who is guarded day and night by two burly guards. When Mrs. Pollifax finds Marcel dead in a hot tub and is stalked by a cold-blooded killer through the hotel, she realizes that the mysteries she’s uncovered are actually intertwined in a horrible web of conspiracy. She manages to make her way back up to her rooms, but she and Hafez are promptly kidnapped by the guards who stand watch over Hafez’s grandmother. Robin manages to delay their kidnapping by wrecking his car in front of the kidnappers’ getaway vehicle, but the guards quickly hustle Mrs. Pollifax into a castle open to visitors. Mrs. Pollifax manages to knock out their guard and stuff him in a chest when they are alone. They end up getting locked in the castle, but they manage to lower themselves out of the castle and down to the shores of Lake Geneva by shinnying their way down an old latrine hole. There Robin is ready and waiting with a rowboat. At first everything seems to be going well, but the remaining guards are one step ahead of them. They kidnap Mrs. Pollifax and manage to secure Robin this time, although Hafez eludes capture. And as Mrs. Pollifax is taken away once again, she begins to learn the terrible secret behind the theft of the plutonium and the deaths of the other agents.
Although this book is a tad more violent than previous Mrs. Pollifax mysteries, the storyline is enjoyable. There’s even a little romance to sweeten the plot. It combines several genres to create a suspenseful spy thriller.
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