Mrs. Pollifax is off on a trip to China for the CIA. Her job is to locate a prison camp and assist another agent as he or she attempts to smuggle a prisoner out of China. She will be traveling in a tour group consisting of six people besides herself, one of which is the agent whose identity has not been revealed to Mrs. Pollifax. This person will make him or herself known to her when necessary. So Mrs. Pollifax makes a little game of trying to guess who her fellow agent may be.
The tourists are Peter, a young, sullen man of 22 who was given a trip to China as a graduation present; Malcolm, an elegant successful artist and writer; Jenny, who teaches grade school and is almost as young as Peter; George, a dour, older rancher who falls hard for one of the women in the group; Iris, a thrice-divorced dancer in her early thirties and who is amazingly clumsy; and lastly is Joseph, a bearded college professor in his forties. They are all there to see the wonders of a newly-opened China. Or are they? Mrs. Pollifax has her doubts after she discovers her luggage has been expertly searched. Because the Americans are not the only ones interested in extracting the Chinese prisoner. The Russians are very keen to get their hands on him too.
I really enjoyed this book a lot. There is a lot less spy stuff than in some of the Pollifax stories. Much of the story centers on the group of tourists and their interactions, which I found interesting. The spy stuff only ramps up in the latter part of the story when the secret agent finally reveals his or her identity.
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