MRS. POLLIFAX AND THE WHIRLING DERVISH

Intrepid Emily Pollifax, heroine of several daring forays in the service of the CIA (Mrs. Pollifax and the Golden Triangle, etc.), is showing her age in this new mission, which has sent her to Morocco. There, Emily is to meet hastily recruited, arrogant, Arabic-speaking Max Janko, to provide window-dressing and a softening presence as they travel the length of the country, checking the identities of seven undercover agents with photographs supplied by the agency—which has learned that one of the seven has been replaced by an enemy spy. The first of their quarry is readily found and identified—then stabbed to death soon after, when Emily realizes not only that Janko himself is an impostor but also that her own life is at risk. Her rescue, by the real Janko, and their travels through mountain and desert; in and out of native dress; in and oat of decrepit vehicles—always pursued; sometimes assisted—should be tense and exciting But except for a brief episode involving Ahmad, a clever nine-year-old, they're not. Descriptions of the Moroccan scene are some help, but they, too, become repetitive and eventually share the hackneyed feel of the action. Despite the CIA's anxieties, a sense of urgency is missing here, and the reader is left to wonder—was this trip necessary?