A Nun in the Closet

 

By Dorothy Gilman

A mysterious benefactor has left his 150 acre estate to the Sisters of St. Tabitha cloister. The abbess sent the two Sisters to take possession of the property that she felt were best equipped to cope with the outside world, Sister John and Sister Hyacinthe. 

When the two Sisters arrive at the property, they find a large Victorian house and barn that seem abandoned. But this is a house of secrets, the first of which is the wounded man hiding upstairs. 

He refuses to tell the two his name or how he came to be suffering from gunshot wounds but he asks for sanctuary before he collapses. The nuns decide to honor his request and set about patching him up and hiding him from nosey visitors, of which there is an unending stream. Some are obviously looking for the wounded man but others seem to be looking for something in the house, including the local sheriff. It isn't long before Sister John discovers a suitcase full of cash and Sister Hyacinthe 50 pounds of what she assumes is powdered sugar (it's not sugar). 

It's pretty apparent that the mysterious benefactor was either a gangster or an associate of gangsters. And those gangsters want their drugs and their money and the wounded man disguised as a nun hidden upstairs. But the Sisters can't call in the police because the sheriff is obviously not to be trusted. Good thing a camp of friendly hippies and their guru are willing to step in to help when the cops can't be trusted. 

This was a good story, even if a bit dated. Set in the early 1970s, with all the concerns of those days that haven't gotten any better in nearly 50 years, but the story is filled with an optimism that we could really use these days. 

Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station

By Dorothy Gilman

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.

The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax

By Dorothy Gilman

The first Mrs. Pollifax novel.

Mrs. Pollifax is depressed, so much so that she briefly contemplated jumping off the roof of the apartment building where she lives. But a visit to her doctor recalls to mind that when she was a youngster, she wanted to be a spy.
Having nothing to lose, she pays a visit to CIA headquarters and, in a case of mistaken identity, finds herself assigned to be a courier in Mexico City.
Naturally, Mrs P. disobeys her instructions and visits her contact at a bookstore before the appointed time, just to take a look around, don't you know. She has a pleasant visit with the bookstore clerk. She returns to the store on the assigned day, only to find someone else manning the store. This man kindly invites her to join him in a cup of tea and she ends up drugged and tied up and hauled off along with another person to Albania.
The other person, Farrell, is one of the CIA's agents in Central America. But Mrs. P maintains her cover as an innocent tourist who is being mistaken for someone she is not. Farrell is cruelly interrogated by their communist captors and manages to briefly escape, only to be recaptured, having been shot and with a broken leg from a fall down a cliff. Mrs. P and Farrell know that their days are numbered. Their only hope is to escape. But Farrell is too injured to travel and Mrs Pollifax refuses to even think of going without him.

I read this book decades ago and I didn't really remember anything about it. So rereading it was like reading it for the first time. It's an improbable story and everyone's failure to realize that Mrs. Pollifax unknowingly had the sought-after  documents was more than a little unbelievable. But it was an interesting read and I understand how it lead me to read more of the Mrs. Pollifax books at the time. Although I don't think it would have had the same effect on me now, being a lot older and lot less easily impressed.

Review by Kirkus Reviews.

Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha

By Dorothy Gilman

Book 7 in the Mrs. Pollifax series finds the matronly spy off on another adventure, this time in Hong Kong.
A young man she befriended on a previous trip to China, Sheng Ti, works for an importer, Feng Imports. Tom Detwiler also works for Feng Imports but he has a side job: he provides information to the CIA. But lately it has become apparent that Detwiler is compromised. The CIA wants Mrs. Pollifax to use her friendship with Sheng Ti to get inside Feng Imports and figure out what is going on with Detwiler.
Nothing is ever that simple in a Pollifax story and complications soon arise once she is in Hong Kong. But with the help of a new friend and of an old friend and at the risk of her neck, Mrs. Pollifax will come shining through.

This was a good story. Mrs. Pollifax is a little less active than she usually is in one of these stories, which I thought was way more believable than some of the stunts she pulls in so many of the stories. She travels around Hong Kong and views the many sights and spends much of her time at her hotel, acting like a normal woman in her fifties or sixties.

Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle

By Dorothy Gilman

Mrs. Pollifax and her recently acquired husband Cyrus are soon to be departing on a trip to the Orient for a vacation. Just hours before they are ready to leave for the airport, Bishop, from the CIA, shows up with a small request. Could they, while in Thailand, pick up some papers from a man and give him a payment for the information?
Naturally, this being a Mrs. Pollifax story, nothing is ever as easy as it is painted to be. When Mrs. Pollifax arrives at the rendezvous, she finds a dead man and another man lurking in the shadows. She runs to find Cyrus, followed by the man, just in time to see her unconscious husband being hustled into the back of van.
The man volunteers his vehicle to chase after the kidnappers and together they charge off after the van, soon ending up in the wilds of Thailand. As the two scramble about the countryside, they encounter jungle villagers, thugs, drug lords, revolutionaries, smugglers and a rogue CIA agent.

This was a pretty good story. Plenty of action and lots of local color.

Kaleidoscope

By Dorothy Gilman

This is the second book in the Madame Karitska series. In this book, Madame is settled into her apartment and seeing plenty of clients who wish to avail themselves of her psychic talents. A parade of troubled people come and go from her apartment, including the abused wife of a cultist, a policeman (who is a friend), a rich man with a spoiled and willful daughter, a government man investigating terrorist activities, and a murderer, just to list a few.
With the help and backing of her police friend, Madame Karitska gently nudges people onto the right path and helps bring miscreants to well-deserved justice.

This is mostly a collection of short stories tied together by means of being clients of Madame. And even though short stories are not my favorite form of reading, I still enjoyed this book a lot.

Thale's Folly

By Dorothy Gilman

Andrew Thale has been sent by his father to look over a property in Massachusetts, an old farm house and the 25 acres that go with it. The house has been empty since Andrew's Aunt Harriet died some years ago. Thale's father, a successful New York businessman, was too busy too attend to the matter himself but is now thinking of selling the property to developers. So Andrew is supposed to go there and take a look around, take some photos and report back to his father. But when he gets there, he finds out that the house isn't unoccupied, in fact four people are living there. They were the guests of Aunt Harriet and they just stayed on after she passed. There is the elderly, mysterious Miss L'Hommedieu, Gussie (the witch), Leo (the Communist) and Tarragon, a lovely young woman who Andrew falls for almost at first sight. Naturally, they have no money and no place to go if they lose the old farm house. Andrew falls in with these people and begins to deal with a trauma from the past and starts to feel he is part of a family, something he never had as a child. Then Dad comes looking for his errant son and messes it all up. But maybe it will be all right if they can just find Harriet's lost will.

This was an OK story. The premise is that everything happens for a reason, including Andrew being almost killed in a plane crash. The crash sent him into a funk, and he ended up working for his father which resulted in Andrew going to Massachusetts and there is also a mistaken raincoat that leads to a fortuitous discovery. Plus there are gypsies, long-lost relatives, witchcraft and other contrivances, too many in my opinion. Also there is too much herbal tea in the story.

Incident at Badamya

By Dorothy Gilman

Set in 1950 Burma, the story begins with the suicide of the father of a young teenage girl, Gen Ferris. Her parents had come to Burma as missionaries shortly before the start of World War II and they were captured by the Japanese and placed in a prison camp where the mother died.
After the end of the war, through despair or inertia, the father stayed with his baby daughter in Burma, eventually ending up in a small rural village. Overcome by his mounting depression and financial troubles, the father killed himself, leaving his daughter to make her way alone back to the only relative she knows of, an aunt in the United States.
Unfortunately, Burma is in a state of civil unrest and Gen is taken by the
communist insurgents and held for ransom along with several other Americans and Europeans. The small group of strangers is locked into an old temple and together they will try to escape or die in the attempt.

This was a really interesting and fascinating story, reading about the determined yet inexperienced young teen left to fend for herself in a hostile world. She makes some new friends, is helped out by some old friends and has a few mystical encounters that add a nice touch to the story. It's a story of a group of strangers who don't really like or trust each other coming to know themselves and each other better and learning to rely on each other.