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 good 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 hot Cold War—and her country’s enemies find themselves entangled with one unbelievably feisty lady.

Once again the irrepressible Mrs. Pollifax, that very special agent with her own very special brand of logic, is off on an incredible escapade of international intrigue . . . from the exotic towns and countryside of Turkey to a mysterious rendezvous with a gypsy caravan. “You are in effect replacing a dead man, Mrs. Pollifax.” 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 of 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?

What we are looking for—aside from the stolen Plutonium, Mrs. Pollifax—is evil in its purest form.” Mrs. Pollifax was leading a very full life: Garden Club, karate, yoga—and a little spying now and then. This time the mysterious Mr. Carstairs sent her to Switzerland—to a famous health resort where the world’s intelligence agents had gathered.

The mission: to track down a missing package of plutonium. Just enough to make a small atom bomb. It was a job that suited Mrs. Pollifax’s talents. She was good with people—and good at sniffing out their secrets. But it was not until she became enchanted with Robin, the young jewel thief, that her new adventure really began.

Now the incredible Mrs. Pollifax has been sent on a safari to smoke out a very clever international assassin whose next target is the president of Zambia. “Just take a lot of pictures of everyone on that safari,” the CIA man told her. “One of them has to be our man.” It sounded simple enough. But it wasn't. Because shortly after Mrs. Pollifax started taking pictures, someone stole her film. And right after that she was kidnapped by Rhodesian terrorists.

Once again, Mrs. Pollifax, the cheerful little woman with the flyaway white hair and a penchant for old hats is plunged headfirst into another hair-raising CIA mission. Posing as a tourist in China, Emily Pollifax meets the sinister challenges of the Orient to safeguard a treasure for the CIA...and all but loses her life in the bargain.

Although recently married, Mrs. Pollifax is packed and ready to go to China, where a young agent, Sheng Ti, holds the answers to goings on at the sinister Feng Imports--a one-time agency front. Only Mrs. Pollifax has earned Sheng's trust, and only she can possibly stop what turns out to be a frightening and ominous plot involving drugs, smuggled diamonds, a famous cat burglar turned Interpol agent, a mysterious psychic, and, of course, murder.....possibly her own!

Although Mrs. Pollifax is determined to give up spying for good, she can't help but agree to carry a small object to an agent in Thailand, and get one in return. The moment she lands, however, Mrs. Pollifax is horrified to find her contact dead and her husband kidnapped.

The next thing she knows, she's tramping through the ominous Thai countryside, led by a curious fellow who may be trying to help her find her husband. Or he may have other, more sinister plans.

The assignment is a snap: Mrs. Pollifax just has to shoot some pictures at a quiet funeral outside Washington and take them to Sicily, where her old friend Farrell -- a former CIA agent turned art dealer -- anxiously awaits them. But like all Mrs. P's assignments, so ostensibly suitable for the CIA's favorite garden club member, this one quickly turns lethal. Her welcoming committee in Palermo includes a most unlikely CIA agent and several unseen enemies.

Unfriendly eyes also observe Mrs. P's rendezvous with Farrell in a secluded mountain village and weapons are soon displayed. With mysterious forces hot after them, she and Farrell scurry for safety to a fortified country villa, where the bizarre chatelaine, once a star on Madison Avenue, is almost as unnerving as the dangers she's protecting them from. So, though the sun shines brightly, the food is delicious, and romance is in the air, Mrs. Pollifax is too busy handing out karate chops and playing catch-me-if-you-can with an assassin to enjoy the amenities.

Seven weeks after facing down a group of terrorists aboard a flight to the Middle East, Amanda Pym has disappeared in Syria, and her aunt Mrs. Pollifax heads to Damascus to find the missing girl.

In her new adventure, Mrs. Pollifax accompanies her young friend Kadi Hopkirk to the African country of Ubangiba, where Kadi's childhood friend, Sammat, is soon to be crowned king. This impromptu journey is a response to an S.O.S. from Sammat to Kadi; and Mrs. P., reluctant to allow the girl to venture alone into what she fears may be grave danger, crashes the party.

Sunny little Ubangiba is no great shakes as nations go. Under Sammat's selfless leadership it is recovering from the devastation wrought by two greedy presidents-for-life who preceded him in office. But Sammat has dangerous enemies. Everywhere rumors are springing up that he is a sorcerer and that his evil power is responsible for a rash of shocking murders in which the victims appear to have been clawed to death by a lion.

These crimes are especially terrifying because there are no lions in Ubangiba. Without the comforting backup of the CIA, Mrs. Pollifax wades into the fray, hunting for the source of the bloody terrorism that threatens Sammat and Ubangiba. Not to mention Kadi and Mrs. Pollifax. Home has never looked so good, or seemed so far away.

Mrs. Pollifax is the CIA's most indispensable "bloodhound" and *as to be expected *she's hot on the track, stealthily sniffing out some major skullduggery. This time she's on loan to her retired CIA friend Farrell. Her bag lady act is the first phase of a mission to the Middle East: to smuggle out of Jordan the final manuscript of the dissident Iraqi novelist, Dib Assen, recently murdered in an Iraqi prison. Allegedly fiction, the script encodes the shocking truth of Saddam Hussein's reign. Allah willing,

Farrell is to rendezvous near Amman with a man called Ibrahim, who will deliver the manuscript. All Mrs. P. has to do is look as much like a tourist as possible to deflect suspicion from her "cousin," Farrell. But hardly are the two airborne when the coils of Middle Eastern intrigue begin to unwind. Mrs. Pollifax's seatmate is not the affable Arab businessman he seems and the little carved plaque he secretly stashes in her carry-on bag is not a mere souvenir.

It is not imagination that persuades Mrs. P. that wherever they go she and Farrell are followed, even to the old castle where Farrell is to meet the mysteriously elusive Ibrahim. To elude their pursuers in such a politically volatile country isn't easy. But Mrs. P. takes her challenges straight up *and this one may be our genteel heroine's stiffest yet. . . .