Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie review

This was published in 1970, and is a little different than many of her books.  There is no Poirot or Miss Marple, it is a stand alone book.

Sir Stafford Nye is a not very distinguished diplomat who is a little bored when he finds the plane he is in diverted to Frankfurt.  He is approached by another passenger, a woman, who tells him she is in massive danger because of the change in flight plans. 

She asks him to live dangerously, drink his drink that she is going to put a sleeping potion in, and allow her to take his cape and passport.  Because of his boredom, and his skewed sense of humor, he agrees.  Luckily for him, it was a sleeping potion, and not a poison.

When he meets the woman he helped at a dinner he attends, she is there under a different name.  Turns out she is a spy of sorts, who is attempting, along with some others, to thwart an evil group of Neo-Nazis who want to take over the world, starting by getting young people drug-addicted, and encouraging anarchy by everyone.  He is convinced to join the group, and becomes involved in a lot of spy type activity.

This was apparently Christie's attempt to jump on the James Bond type spy thriller band wagon, and while I don't think the book was totally awful, I also don't think it was particularly good.  It also seemed to push the idea that young people are lacking in morals, intelligence, and ambition and are basically violent given any opportunity. 

It seemed to have less mystery, and more propaganda, than is usual in her books. 

This is part of my Vintage Mystery BINGO challenge--Silver---L--Book that involves a mode of transportation.

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