Mrs Pollifax Fan Blog

Archive for August, 2008

Published in 1971

Third in the series. While waiting for a view of her night-blooming cereus, the mild-seeming Mrs. Pollifax received urgent orders for a daring mission to aid an escape. Soon, the unlikely-looking international spy was sporting a beautiful new hat that hid eight forged passports….

The Elusive Mrs Pollifax

Published in 1970

Second in the series. When Emily Pollifax answered the phone that Sunday morning she quickly forgot about her garden club tea in the afternoon. The last time she had heard the voice on the other end of the line it had sent her off on a journey that plunged her into a wild tangle of secret agents and high adventure. Now the man from the CIA was asking if she could leave immediately on a mission that would take her halfway across the world. What could Mrs. Pollifax say but yes?

Published in 1966

First in the series. Mrs. Virgil (Emily) Pollifax of New Brunswick, New Jersey, was a widow with grown, married children. She was tired of attending her garden club meetings. She wanted to do something for her country. So, naturally, she became a CIA agent. She takes on a ‘job’ in Mexico City. The assignment doesn’t sound dangerous at first, but then, as often happens, something goes wrong. Now our dear Mrs. Pollifax finds herself embroiled in quite a cold war – - and her country’s enemies find themselves entangled with one unbelievably feisty lady.

The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax

Published in 1950.

When her Uncle Shoe and Aunt Francis pass away, you Capri MacComb’s mother is left with a useless farm and money owing. She also inherits a run down carnival, “The Toby Brothers Traveling Show”. With nothing to lose, Capri and her mother set out to make the carnival a successful business. (Description contributed by Marijke VanNieuwstadt, a Dorothy Gilman fan)

Carnival Gypsy

Published in 1949.

This is a great little story about a father and daughter reunited after several years and the adventure they go on during a summer vacation. The father has converted an old bus into a traveling trailer that he lives and travels in. When his daughter joins him in an adventure they travel across the eastern states meeting interesting people, obtain 3 new
traveling companions, work in a circus, and sell ice cream and candy along the way to pay for the trip. They learn much about each other and their companions and finally learn what a true family really is all about!

Enchanted Caravan

Published in 2002

This is the last book published by Dorothy Gilman. All of her fans are terribly sad about this and hope that there is at least one more book out there that she has yet to publish!

Kaleidoscope

Published in 1999

Andrew Thale, son of stuffy corporate V.P. Horace, has been asked by his father to look over the property in Massachusetts that Horace has inherited, In the absence of a will, from his reclusive aunt Harriet Thale five years before. Horace has been paying taxes on the empty house and its 25 acres ever since and is now thinking of selling or developing the property. Andrews, author of two well-received novels, is in a creative limbo and has, in desperation, been writing the newsletter for Meredith Machines. He dutifully departs in a company car for the remote, potholed road that leads to the Thale farmhouse, which lacks heat electricity and phone but is far from empty. Living there in contented penury are the strays Harriet Thale collected before her demise; elegant Miss L’Hommedieu, housekeeper-cook Gussie; passionate Marxist Leo, and beautiful young Tarragon. Andrew gets yet another surprise when he discovers his mother, who’d left Horace seven years ago, living happily in a cottage on the property. There are more odd twists in store for Andrew, the arrival of his father, the discovery of a hidden mill, but most important, the rediscovery of his creative self.

Thale's Folly

Originally published in 1992

It is set in North Africa during the 1914. The time is pre-World War 1 and Caressa Horvath, a 16-year who comes from a carnival family, is an expert juggler and pickpocket. She has been sent to a private school in Boston to satisfy the mother who is determined to make her a lady. Ever impoverished, Caressa makes an ill-judged attempt at theft that introduces her to wealthy linguist-anthropologist Jacob Bowman. He marries her, and soon after they leave on an exploratory mission to Africa — first to Tripoli, then across the Sahara. The expedition, through hostile Tuareg country, ends in disaster; but it is only the beginning for Caressa. She is taken captive and spends the next harrowing years fighting to survive enemies and the desert. Finding friends, finding love – only to discover betrayal on her return to civilization.

Caravan

Published in 1989

The story centers on a recently orphaned white girl, Gen Ferris, in Burma during the 1950’s. Her father was a widower and a missionary. After her father’s death she sets out on her own in the middle of a war to reach a relative in the U.S. Along the way she is captured along with others and held for ransom. And with this group of fellow captives she meets a mysterious Burmese puppet master who holds the secret to her mystical gift

Incident at Badamya

First published in 1979

This book is wonderful as well. I have read it at least 3 or 4 times. “They’re going to kill me soon” is what the note said that shy Amelia Jones found in an old hurdy-gurdy. Armed only with the strange woman’s first name and the note written years before, Amelia begins a journey into the past, where nothing is the way it seems, where fear is second nature, and where dark secrets just might uncover murder…….her own.

Tightrope Walker