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Title: Mrs Pollifax on Safari
Series: Mrs Pollifax #5
Author: Dorothy Gilman
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Thriller
Pages: 161
Words: 57K
Much like the Nero Wolfe books, I have come to realize, albeit much sooner than with Wolfe, than I am thoroughly enjoying these books enough to bump them up to a standard 4star level. They meet all of my criteria for 4stars and I realized I needed to stop being so stingy with my ratings. I’m not going to go broke if I rate a series higher for goodness sake. While I am not going to go all Fraggle and read these back to back to back, I can totally see myself re-reading these in several years. And that “re-readability” is usually the tipping point from 3.5 to 4 stars. Not always, but usually
Mrs Pollifax is roped into another assignment for the CIA and once again is promised it will be a cakewalk. All she has to do is go on a Safari in Africa and while taking pictures on the safari, take pictures of everyone on the safari. Because one of them is a ruthless, unstoppable assassin. So of course everything goes straight to pot and derails like a freight train plunging off a cliff and Mrs Pollifax does a LOT more than just taking pictures.
I know I say this for every book, but Gilman is an absolute master at upping the ante very organically for Mrs Pollifax. Nothing that happens is so outlandish that it makes me suspend my belief in the story or feel like it is Authorial Fiat/Machina Ex Deus. It takes a really good author to write that way and to go from Point A to Point Z, hitting the rest of the alphabet on the journey without making one feel like a lamb being led to the slaughter.
Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I continue to thoroughly enjoy the series. I don’t know how much more of a recommendation I could give. Thankfully, I’m not trying to sell this to you. I’m simply chronicling my enjoyment. If you don’t read this series, that’s fine. It’s your loss alone 🙂
★★★★☆
From Wikipedia.org
Synopsis – click to open
Mrs. Pollifax is called upon by the CIA to undertake another mission, this time to photograph members of a safari in Zambia, one of whom is an international assassin nicknamed Aristotle. She innocently posts an ad in the local newspaper trying to contact her old friend Farrell from the first book. This leads to major complications, as Farrell is involved with the freedom fighters across the border and has made some enemies. Another entertaining outing and with a bit of romance as a fellow traveler takes a fancy to Mrs. Pollifax.
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