During the quarantine, I started rereading Dorothy Gilman’s Mrs. Pollifax series, a cozy mystery series I enjoyed reading many years ago. Mrs. Pollifax is an elderly lady who got bored with her orderly life of garden groups and tea with friends, and decides to join the CIA and do something more exciting with her life. Most people don’t get hired by the CIA by walking in and offering their services, but by a twist of fate, that’s what happened. Mrs. Pollifax, with her keen intelligence, little-old-lady look, and top form karate skills is the perfect spy!
In this 9th book in the series, Mrs. Pollifax and the Whirling Dervish, she is called on to travel to Morocco.
From the publisher:
All Mrs. Pollifax has to do is to masquerade as the aunt of an inept CIA representative while he confirms the identities of seven undercover agents in Morocco—and keep him from making an unpleasant ass of himself. Immediately, things go horribly wrong. The first informant is murdered minutes after Mrs. Pollifax and her companion identify him in his brassware stall in Fez. Worse, she senses that her colleague is not who—or what—he says he is.
As in all the Mrs. Pollifax books, author Dorothy Gilman sends her character into different cultures and situations. We travel along to learn a little about each culture, and the respectful research done into each of them always makes for an enjoyable journey. These books are just plain fun, and they are extra fun when you listen to the audiobook version, narrated by Barbara Rosenblat!
I chose this book to read for my personal challenge, “Wanderlust,” an effort to read books that are from or take place in each country of the world. This was a story that takes place in Morocco.
A Fondness For Reading 
My daughter and I read spent a delightful summer reading all the Mrs. Pollifax books together. Maybe it is time for me to revisit them.
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Sharon, how fun! What a wonderful mother/daughter experience. I am enjoying my return visit with Emily Pollifax!
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Some of my best reading memories are listening to BR read this series, and the Amelia Peabody. That was in the days of cassettes, and I just never got into CDs or phone as means of listening, but those several years of tapes were heaven to me. I think I must be an aural, is it called?, reader, in that I remember more when I hear it than when I read it. So happy you are reading them.
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Nan, I read the books long ago, but hadn’t listened to the audiobooks, so this is an absolute treat! I loved them then, but love them even more as audiobooks. So much fun! (I definitely need to listen to the Amelia Peabody series…which I have to confess I’ve never read!)
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This sounds like such a charming cozy series. And, what a setting for this one. I would imagine Morocco must be such an amazing place.
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Iliana, it’s a fun series, and I enjoy how she places each story in a different culture. It gives us a glimpse of a different way of life.
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