Dorothy Gilman writes smoothly and plots excellently. I am certain that others have compared her to Agatha Christie. This story begins as Carstairs determines that a situation requires the presence of Mrs. Pollifax. He thinks that Emily Pollifax would be able to correct whatever lack of tact the CIA man, Max Janko, possessed. He feels that it would be dangerous for Mrs. Pollifax to know too much. The destination is Morocco. Some years ago Mrs. Pollifax volunteered to be spy. Before being called this time she ws beginning to fear that Carstairs felt she was too old to be of any further use. She agreed to go to Morocco the following day. She is successful in her mission to foil the attempts of someone making impersonations of persons promoting the interest of the Polisarios. In the course of her adventures she encounters a small boy, a holy man, the sufi or whirling dervish of the title, and a former superior of Carstairs. The holy man she encounters is someone who saved Carstairs from certain death when he was serving in the OSS during World War II.

Mrs. Pollifax travels to Morocco in the ninth book of this delightful series. She is asked to pose as the aunt of a crusty agent who needs a little smoothing around the edges. They are to travel around Morocco and ascertain that the seven members of an information chain are all legitimate and match the pictures which have been entrusted to Mrs. Pollifax. She does not enjoy traveling with her companion and soon discovers that he is not who he says he is. Political intrigue and murder rear their ugly heads and Mrs. Pollifax is soon running for her life, while trying to ascertain who she can trust and who is out to eliminate her. This book introduces the reader to some delightful new characters while developing those we've already met, particularly an elusive gentleman who is in the upper echelons of the CIA's administration. This is a delightful read!

After the disappointment of "Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle," Dorothy Gilman went back to the formula that works for the series with "Whirling Dervish." The story of Mrs. Pollifax traveling through a foreign land with a crusty agent makes for intrigue and comedy. A very enjoyable, exciting, quick read. Reminiscent in some ways of both "The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax" and "A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax."

I have read The Tightrope Walker many times and was amazed to find out recently that The Maze in the Heart of the Castle was a real book. I thought it was well written and exciting. I can see where Amelia Jones felt personally connected to it. However, there are scenes mentioned in Tightrope Walker that didn't happen. Also what about the supposed sequel, In the Land of the Golden Warriors? Is it really coming? I hope so, because I think Colin's adventures in The Maze were just the beginning!

I read this book after I had read The Tightrope Walker by Dorothy Gilman, as it was referenced in that book. Even though it is listed as a book for young adults it is quite fabulous. A book with a moral and it makes you think. I loved it!

One of the other reviewers said that she gets something more out of this book each time she reads it. Like her, I've read this book over twenty times (at least), as I've been reading it every few months since I was about ten years old. When you first encounter The Maze, you read an adventure story, full of original action and intriguing characters, all of it taking place in a time and space somewhat similar too but significantly different from "conventional" Western fantasy. The book begs to be read over and over again, as the characters and situations that the hero, Colin, encounters reveal themselves to be something more than what they first appeared to be. In other words, the book is an allegory, where Colin's adventures and his quest actually represent a much deeper spiritual journey. The people that Colin meets, though somewhat fantastical to say the least, represent different kinds of people we all meet in the world around us, and the places he visits represent different feelings and states of being that we all possess. As Colin learns to recognize the different "types" around him and comes to understand how he fits in the among them and how he alone can complete the journey, the readers also learn to see themselves in Gilman's book. I invite anyone who is thinking about reading this book to get it (somehow) and to immerse themselves in the story and take the journey. Then to read it again. And again.

Gilman hits just the right note of poignancy in this story of a young girl who must use her wits and discover her unique talents to survive the harrowing journey to freedom when her missionary father commits suicide. It is easy to see the world through Gen's eyes as she struggles to determine who are her friends and who are her enemies in a land torn by war.

Gilman does very well with the mystical elements, fitting them in so that they mesh with the world she describes to us and seem no less real than the rest of the story.

Those who read Dorothy Gilman's books regularly will be surprised by this one; it's not her usual genre. A child is a prisoner, caught between warring factions. In the camp, her life is made bearable when she is befriended by a wise old man.
When, later, she seeks to find him again, she discovers that...well, I can't reveal what she finds, because it'd give away the magic of the story. It's a bit of Twilight Zone do-do-DO-do music that's called for here.
Quick, easy read - wonderful and compelling book.

Gen Ferris is an unusual girl, living in Burma in 1950, the daughter of a missionary--when she has to make her way out of the country. Her flight is almost immediately interrupted by her capture by Red Chinese forces, along with a large and often comical cast of characters, who are imprisoned with her. But she soon realizes that these people are wearing masks that hide their true selves. And subtle forces bring her help and illumination, both for her life and spirit as well as her fellow captives. It is never overtly stated, but beautifully done, and when I put the book down, it made me wistful for that magic. A good read!

I just recently discovered the Mrs. Pollifax books and I have been enjoying them immensely. This one is a great favorite of mine because not only are the many characters and the complex plot skillfully handled, but the characterization is wonderful. The author employs the great writer's rule of "Show, don't tell" to give the reader a more detailed picture of who Mrs. Pollifax is. Her character is drawn with more depth in this novel than in either of the two preceding. In addition, the story is exciting and told with a gentle humor that certainly kept me reading.

I go back a couple of books in the series now to this one, the third. Fortunately there are no significant references to prior books this time around.

Anyhow, this time Mrs. Pollifax finds her way to Bulgaria. Supposedly she is only taking passports to the underground there, but her boss Carstairs is strongarmed into having her taking other items, sewn into her coat, along with her without her knowing it. Complications, unsurprisingly, ensue. She falls in with a group of travelling college students (and one in particular), and leaps in to help when one of them is held by the secret police.

She leads both friends and foes on a merry chase as she travels around Bulgaria. It's got to be one of the more complex plots of any of the books I've read so far, and as a result one of the most gripping.

Rosenblat again does a superb job with the voices.

I am a huge fan of Dorothy Gilman's Mrs. Pollifax series (especially through and including Mrs. Pollifax on Safari -- although I still buy and read each one as soon as they're published). And this is a real winner. Very witty and entertaining. Although I usually give away mysteries after reading them, I can't bear to part with this series (through and including Mrs. Pollifax on Safari), and love rereading them over and over again. VERY highly recommended.

(Based on the audiotape, no longer available (?) )
For once Carstairs sends Mrs. Pollifax into the thick of it, to a Swiss spa where some plutonium thieves are thought to lurk. Once again she meddles in side issues, in this case a child who seems strangely frightened, which turns out to be at the heart of the whole situation. This is also where she meets jewel thief Robin and helps turn him to the straight and narrow. Another entertaining outing, well-read by Rosenblat, as usual.

There is some plutonium missing and Mr. Carstairs of the CIA decides that Mrs. Pollifax is the one to find it. He dispatches her to an upscale clinic in Switzerland, where he suspects the
contraband has been hidden. She begins a careful investigation of the guests at the clinic and soon befriends a young man and woman, and a young boy and his grandmother. She soon discovers that very few of them are who they claim to be and she becomes involved in intrigue with men who plan to overthrow the government of a small country. She, of course, displays the courage and ingenuity which Mr. Carstairs has learned to depend on, and she leads her outnumbered friends into the adventure of their lives. This is a delightful series.

I LOVED this book. This was my first Mrs. Pollifax novel. I couldn't put the book down. Dorothy Gilman does a fabulous job creating the relationships. I especially enjoyed Mrs. Pollifax's unique relationships with both the boy Hafez and Robin, the cat burgler. The way Dorothy Gilman describes the settings of Lake Geneva, the clinic, the castle and the chalet all provide a balance of relaxation and adventure for the reader. I can't wait to read my next Mrs. P novel.... one problem.... which to read first?

This book originally was written when I was in High School. I loved it then and thought I'd pick up the rerelease and see if it held up to my adult expectations. It did. I hope my granddaughter will someday read it.

There are few books that forfill my lust for reading, but Girl in Buckskin soared beyond my expectations. Becky runs away with her brother into the wilderness, and during that time she learns to trust her Native friends, survive by herself, and she even managed to get a little romance.

Mrs. Pollifax is trying to recover from her last adventure in Hong Kong and is planning a trip to Thailand with her new husband, Cyrus. Just as they are about to leave, CIA emissary Bishop arrives and asks them to go on a "simple mission" in which they would divert their travels only slightly and would deliver something to an agent and retrieve something in return.
She and Cyrus agree and soon they are off on their latest misadventure. As always, in Mrs. Pollifax tales, things do not go according to plan and there are unfortunate incidents of murder, kidnapping, and opium dealing before Mrs. Pollifax finally triumphs and ties up these untidy details in a nice, neat package. This is a typical book in the series.

"Wanted: Agents for the CIA. Must be able to travel at a moment's notice, able to endure pain and danger,
and willing to lie to your neighbors about where you have been."

If you came across such an ad, what would you do? Most of us would call the editor for running such an
obvious hoax, but Emily Pollifax, a garden-club grandmother, once came across an ad much like that one and began a
series of adventures that I have found fascinating reading.

In Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle,, Dorothy Gilman takes us (and her heroine) to Thailand where she
is to simply deliver a package to one of the CIA's couriers. Afterwards, she and her new husband can enjoy a much-
deserved vacation.

Of course nothing goes as smoothly as it should, and when Mrs. Pollifax attempts to make the delivery she
discovers that the agent is unable to keep their appointment for an excellent reason-he has been murdered! To make
matters even worse, her husband, Cyrus, is kidnaped and only she can follow the trail to rescue him.

Unfortunately her only link to her husband and to the dead agent is a man called Bonchoo, and she is not
sure how well she can trust him. He claims that another agent there has been passing along false information to the
CIA and that he had tried to inform the agency of that fact.

Swallowing her mistrust, Mrs. Pollifax follows Bonchoo into the jungle. There they come into contact with
one of the local bandit gangs, a group interested in smuggling both guns and opium. Are they connected with her
husband's kidnaping? And even if they are not, does she know too much to live?

Matters are only complicated more when she comes across a photojournalist, Mornajay, a man who insists
on getting in her way, and when she meets the Acharya, a reclusive Buddhist holy man.

Her superiors in Washington are in terror that Emily Pollifax may be on her last mission. Of course, we
readers have much more confidence in her abilities-and in the joys we will encounter in the other Mrs. Pollifax
books!

Sometimes when I read of the doings of Mrs. Pollifax, I just get exhausted thinking that an over 60 woman could possibly have all the stamina and determination of Gillman's Emily Pollifax. And sometimes, while reading the Pollifax series titles, I have had to set the books aside and shake off my irritation at this super-hero woman.

But this one grabbed me from the start, with Emily and her spouse, Cyrus Reed, vacationing together in Thailand on a "sure-thing" little assignment for Carstairs and Bishop of the CIA, back home in Virginia.

Gillman has a way of making Emily Pollifax an endearing protagonist who empathizes with her adversaries to the point of befriending them, and who survives miles of walking in the wrong shoes, eating the minimum of food, enduring the most hazardous of jungle trails and the dangers thereof.

There are always surprises in store for the reader. The double identities are things one can guess at if you have read very many mysteries, but the touching revelations just add to the delight.

It would be nice to think that there is someone out there like Emily, who at the waning time of life is still up and after it and never too tired to try another adventure. For me, the reader's position is the best place, with the comforts of home as I enjoy another quite dramatic journey that all winds up kosher, thanks to the skillful touch of a fine mystery writer, Dorothy Gillman Butters. Brava, Emily! Brava, Dorothy!

I couldn't wait for this book to come out, as I have loved reading Mrs. Pollifax books in the past, but this one seemed dull and uneventful compared to the others. The story never seemed to pick up and didn't have the delightful descriptions of the country that the other books have had. There were no real surprises or plot twists, and I am getting kind of sick of Farrell, even though I like the character, he's in too many of the books. I love her books set in the Middle East, but this one was basically the same geography as the last Mrs. Pollifax book (which was set in Jordan - Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled is set in Syria). Not to mention, having Mrs. Pollifax once again disguised as a native on a bus (also in The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax) was a bit weak. I was really disappointed in this book, compared to the others in the series, but since I do like the characters and the plot wasn't terrible, it was still entertaining. By the way, if anyone likes listening to audio books, Recorded Books, Inc. has brilliant recordings of all the Mrs. Pollifax novels. The narration is excellent. They have a website at recordedbooks.com or get one at your library!

Mrs. Pollifax is an unlikely candidate for a CIA spy.

Carstairs: "...Mrs. Pollifax, would you be free to leave on Sunday?

Emily Pollifax: "For Syria!" In her mind Mrs. Pollifax ran over her engagements and nodded. "I'd need only cancel Garden club on Monday, and my karate lesson on Tuesday."

In this Mrs. Pollifax book, she and Farrell are sent to Syria. A woman, who'd stopped some hijackers dead in their tracks, was missing. Mission: to bring Amanda Pym back to the United States.

Despite a beating each, Mrs. Pollifax and Farrell both got off easier than usual. This book, while still quite good, wasn't up to the standard of the other Mrs. Pollifax books. I've been reading Dorothy Gillman for over ten years, since "The Unexpected..." appeared in Reader's Digest "Condensed." While disappointed, I'm glad I read it. While I'm glad I read it, I'm also glad I borrowed it and didn't purchase it.

It was pretty good; I'll continue to read Dorothy Gillman's series.

Just when Mrs. Pollifax begins to get restless, Bishop comes to her home to offer her another adventure for the CIA. This time she and her old friend Farrell are asked to find a young girl named Amanda who rescued 200 people from being hijacked on a plane and then disappeared. There are the requisite number of chases, strange-looking people following them, adventures and misadventures for this book to join the others in the enjoyable Mrs. Pollifax series. The one thing that puzzles me is why Dorothy Gilman had her heroine marry Cyrus in one of the early books and then have him serve as background, always off on his own business when Emily does another assignment for the CIA. Perhaps she received negative feedback from readers when Cyrus accompanied her on one of her adventures, but it seems too bad to shove such a nice man into the background.

The newly-married Mrs. Pollifax is in the process of fixing up her new home in the country when Bishop appears on her doorstep and offers her another assignment for the CIA. Cyrus is out of town and Mrs. P. must give an immediate answer, so an hour later she is on her way to Hong Kong. Her mission is to contact Sheng Ti, whom she met in an earlier book and find out what is going on at Feng Imports where Sheng Ti is working for an agent named Detwiler. Detwiler's reports to the CIA have proved to be false, so he is suspected of being a counterspy and giving evidence to the enemy. Mrs. Pollifax meets some other interesting characters, including a psychic, and another old friend who is a reformed cat burglar while in pursuit of the truth about Feng Imports. She is captured and suffers from some unnecessarily harsh treatment, probably the reason this is not most people's favorite book of the series.

(Review of the audiotape, no longer available (?) )

Two books after going on safari, Mrs. Pollifax is now married to Cyrus, the gentleman she met on that safari. Marriage, however, doesn't slow her down, as she's sent to Hong Kong to meet up with someone she knew from the previous outing (which unfortunately I have not yet read). Enroute she meets a psychic on the plane, something that disheartened me: not only am I extremely skeptical of psychics, but it's very easy for the writer to use the psychic to effectively perform magic and circumvent plot holes through mysticla means. Not surprisingly, this psychic's ability waxes and wanes according to the author's needs, in one instance finding someone's body in a particular hut in Hong Kong, while, when Mrs. Pollifax is in danger, can only indicate a broad area where she might be - of course, since the book would be over if they could find her!

Other than that, it's another good read, with typically vivid characters both in the text and brought to life by Rosenblat's superb narrative skills. Mildly recommended.

I remember distinctly that my grandmother did not care for this episode in the Pollifax adventures. "Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha" was a little too violent and disturbing for her. I, on the other hand, love it! Thrilling, exciting, never a dull moment. Not for the squeamish!

I love Dorothy Gilman's books. I have all the Mrs. Pollifax and am collecting her stand alone novels. After I labored through Uncertain Voyage I thought it should be retitled "Uncertain How It Ever Got Published". Thankfully, I only payed $.50 for it at a used bookstore. If you've never read Dorothy Gilman, please don't start with this book. Read her Mrs. Pollifax series or Thale's Folly to really find out what a terrific author she is.

I have read most of Dorothy Gilman's books and loved them. I especially enjoyed the "Mrs. Pollifax" series. However, I have found "Uncertain Voyage" to be the worst Dorothy Gilman book I have ever read. I have read 142 pages of it so far...thinking with each page that I read the next one will be better, but it is so boring I don't know if I will be able to finish it. Melissa is so cocerned with her past nervous break down and Adam there is hardly time for anything else. Basically it is just very predictable. There no twist and turns or surprises in it. If you have ever read a mystery novel you know how it ends almost from the begining. Some people may love the book. However, I do not think it was worth buying brand new. In my opion it might be worth buying it used for 25 cents or less, but only if you are desperate to find something to read.

I like this book probably because in a real strange way it mirrored my own life just a little. Coming out of a 15 year marriage to a psychologically abusive alcoholic marriage.. this book just felt good.. the story fit like a glove for me.
I just enjoyed this book tremendously. It is a departure from the Mrs Pollifax series stories but very enjoyable.
I cant believe this book didnt get more stars from other readers.. but thats ok.. to each his own.. I loved this book!