The Adventures of Mrs. Pollifax Quiz

Answer: Carstairs

Carstairs and his estimable assistant, Bishop, appear in every book. They provide exposition as the missions unfold, increase tension as they fret about the impossible trouble in which Mrs. Pollifax invariably finds herself, and, last but not least, indulge in comic relief. Bishop's taste for chocolate eclairs is legendary, and in nearly every book Mrs. Pollifax's ingenious and lucky solution leaves them dazzled and confused.

This meeting marks a turning point in Mrs. Pollifax's life. Before, she had been so bored and lonely as a widowed, pensioned mother of two grown children that she had considered suicide while watering her geraniums on the roof of her apartment building. After meeting Carstairs, her life gets a bit more interesting: in 14 books, the thought never crosses her mind again.

Answer: Albania

Mrs. Pollifax first meets her fellow captive when she awakes from being drugged; they are bound back-to-back and she considers him rather disreputable. Luckily for her, this turns out to be the steadfast John Sebastian Farrell, a good friend who will turn up many more times throughout the series. On this occasion, however, he is injured soon after their capture, and it is up to Mrs. Pollifax to guide him and another mysterious captive through Albania (disguised as peasants) and into the Adriatic, where they are picked up by a Greek fishing vessel. Mrs. Pollifax's escapes are in many ways the espionage equivalent of Rube Goldberg devices.

Answer: In a deck of cards

It's a good thing that Mrs. Pollifax likes to be prepared. Her contact is Seņor DeGamez, the proprietor of the Parrot Bookstore in Mexico City. She decides to check things out several days before the appointed rendezvous; he recognizes her and decides to give her the microfilm ahead of time, suspecting that his movements are being followed.

He persuades her to buy a book explaining hundreds of solitaire games, and makes a gift of a deck of cards. In Albania, her captors go over the book from top to bottom looking for the microfilm, but they never think to examine the playing cards with which she's keeping herself occupied.

Answer: The spy Magda Ferenci-Sabo, defecting from the Communists

Agents from all around the world are arriving in Istanbul to search for Ferenci-Sabo, who had gone to the British Consulate to seek asylum and then disappeared overnight. Most of them believe that she is a Communist spy, now defecting -- but Carstairs and the CIA know that she is actually a double agent, her true loyalty to the West, and they want to take care of her as one of their own.

Naturally, this means sending the resourceful Mrs. Pollifax.

Answer: By shooting documentary pictures for his uncle

Her seatmate on the airplane, a model, begs Mrs. Pollifax to deliver a ring to her brother; apparently they've made a game of trading it back and forth. Colin, 25, is in Turkey partly to flee the expectations of his family: the Ramsays' achievements have always been "incredible", and he doesn't feel up to snuff.

His actions supporting Mrs. Pollifax in this caper, however, prove him to be pretty incredible after all.

Answer: There are two men drugging their kidnap victim in an upstairs bedroom.

Mrs. Pollifax and Colin seek Dr. Belleaux's help at a desperate moment: her co-agent Henry has been murdered, and although they were able to find and briefly protect Magda, she's been kidnapped again. But when they arrive at his home, they discover that Magda's kidnappers are in an upstairs bedroom, drugging her.

Not exactly what they'd expected in the home of such an upstanding man! They rescue Magda, but are pursued throughout Turkey by Dr. Belleaux and his henchmen; Mrs. Pollifax's instincts are right on target (as usual), and he is a Soviet sleeper sent to recover Magda and her information. And he doesn't particularly care what happens to the people trying to save her!

Answer: Gypsies (Rom)

Magda had befriended this troop of gypsies on her previous trips, and it is with them that she has left the treasure she won't leave Turkey without: her grandson, who also bears an amulet containing secrets on microfilm. Dr. Belleaux nearly manages to turn them against Mrs. Pollifax, but Anyeta Inglescu, the queen of the gypsy troop, meets with her and decides to trust her. On her subsequent adventures, Mrs. Pollifax often thinks back to the psychic gypsy queen who saved her life.

Answer: American passports

A few days earlier, members of this resistance group had saved the life of a CIA agent by alerting him that the secret police were onto him, and then smuggling him out of the country. All they ask in return is 8 U.S. passports, which Carstairs sends Mrs. Pollifax to deliver. Unbeknownst to her, the suits "upstairs" have also asked that she smuggle in several much more sensitive documents, which are furtively sewn into the lining of her coat.

In Bulgaria, she is naturally quite surprised when a covert American agent repeatedly attempts to steal the coat to get the documents.

Answer: A young American tourist, son of a wealthy Bulgarian emigrant

Philip Trenda's father emigrated from Bulgaria with very little cash, but once in America he shortened his name (from Trendafilov) and became a very successful businessman. Now Philip is in trouble: on the orders of an ambitious general, he has been arrested so as to extract a substantial ransom from his father. And the general has no plans of releasing him alive after the money is delivered . . .

Answer: She stages a massive jailbreak.

Philip is being held at the Panchevsky Institute, a high-security prison for political offenders. Several members of the resistance movement are there as well. With the help of the resistance, and of Philip's aunt (who works in the kitchens of the Panchevsky Institute), Mrs. Pollifax plans an elaborate jailbreak, after which the American passports can be distributed to the various freed prisoners.

I highly recommend the Mrs. Pollifax books; they may not be high literature but they're lots of fun. I hope you've enjoyed this quiz; thank you for playing!