Dorothy Gilman

Dorothy Gilman is an author of mystery and espionage novels.

She is the author of a series of novels about Mrs Emily Pollifax, an elderly widow who, feeling useless and terminally bored, decides to pursue her childhood ambition and become a spy. Her application to the CIA happens to coincide with an urgent situation requiring somebody who is not known to the opposition and who can convincingly play the role of an innocent tourist, two qualifications for which she is aptly suited, so instead of immediately telling her to get lost, she's offered what's expected to be a straightforward courier run. Of course, things don't go as smoothly as expected...

Other novels by Dorothy Gilman include The Clairvoyant Countess and sequel Kaleidoscope, about a psychic descended from the Russian nobility who befriends a policeman and helps him in his investigations; and The Tightrope Walker, about an emotionally-scarred antique dealer who gains self-confidence and a variety of new friends while investigating a cry for help hidden inside one of her antiques.


 * Bad Dreams: In The Tightrope Walker, Amelia is plagued with nightmares related to her traumatic childhood.
 * Bad Humor Truck: In The Clairvoyant Countess there is a significant ice cream truck company run by a very scary bad guy.
 * Bavarian Fire Drill: Mrs. Pollifax isn't bad at whipping these up when she needs them.
 * Central Intelligence Agency: In her first appearance, Mrs. Pollifax (bored with being a suburban retiree) essentially walks into the CIA and applies for a job as a spy.  As it so happened, one particular section head happened to need a previously-unknown courier for a completely-safe milk run...
 * CIA Evil, FBI Good: Simultaneously averted and invoked, in the Mrs. Pollifax books.  Her informal superior and his staff are all good people who respect her (and worry about her on missions), and they also go out their way to protect her from some of the less-pleasant parts of the agency.  When certain real-life scandals involving the CIA made their way into the books, Mrs. Pollifax was furious at what some of her colleagues had been up to.
 * Comic Book Time: Mrs. Pollifax.  The first book was written in 1966, and the last in 2000 -- a span of 34 years -- but the elderly Mrs. Pollifax does not seem to age appreciably during that time.
 * Defictionalization: In The Tightrope Walker, the protagonist's favorite novel as a child turns out to be unexpectedly relevant to the plot. The Maze in the Heart of the Castle was fictional, but few years later, Gilman actually wrote it.
 * Gentleman Thief: Mrs. Pollifax makes the acquaintance of one during one of her adventures; he shows up in at least one other book and gets sucked into her current mission.
 * The Handler: Mr. Carstairs, for Mrs. Pollifax.
 * Impoverished Patrician: The countess's background in The Clairvoyant Countess; she has settled down to working for her living.
 * It Got Worse: What usually happens to Mrs. Pollifax's missions, because of her tendency to Spot and Pull the Thread, or to try to help someone in need.
 * Joisey: Mrs. Pollifax lives in New Brunswick, NJ, apparently not far from the campus of Rutgers University.
 * Little Old Lady Investigates: Mrs Pollifax
 * Make It Look Like a Struggle: In The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax, the soldier who assists Farrell and Mrs Pollifax in their escape attempt insists that they tie him up so he won't be suspected, and offers helpful advice on where best to hit him on the head to render him unconscious without doing permanent damage.
 * The Movie: Mrs. Pollifax - Spy, a 1971 comedy-adventure film starring Rosalind Russell in the title role; Russell also wrote the screenplay (adapted from the first novel) under a pseudonym.  Also, The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax, a 1999 TV Movie of the first novel, starring Angela Lansbury in the title role.
 * Never Mess with Granny: Mrs Pollifax. She is intelligent, observant, levelheaded, good at improvising, and a black belt in karate.
 * Nice Hat: One of Mrs. Pollifax's personal pre-spy trademarks, which she maintains throughout her adventures.  Eventually her CIA contacts start using her hats as part of her equipment.
 * Obfuscating Stupidity: One of the characters in The Unexpected Mrs Pollifax, to the point that Mrs Pollifax speculates about mental disability.
 * Part-Time Spy: Mrs. Pollifax.  Although she applied for a job with the CIA, she was never formally hired.  However, one particular section head uses her as a freelancer, whenever he needs someone who is completely off the radar and would never be suspected.  And when he realizes just how competent she is, he graduates her from "simple" courier jobs to actual missions.  But she rarely performs more than one job a year for him.
 * Pater Familicide: One of the other psychics in The Clairvoyant Countess is rescued from one of these.
 * Psychic Powers: The Clairvoyant Countess, not surprisingly.
 * Qurac: Zabya from A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax, described as one of "those Arabian oil-producing countries".
 * Ransacked Room: In Mrs Pollifax On Safari, Mrs Pollifax packs her case with great care and always in the same way. Because of this, she can pick up the subtle shifts that proved someone had searched it and repacked it, very neatly. (Note that tradecraft makes James Bond and Travis McGee carefully arrange things to alert them if they've been searched -- Emily Pollifax is just a neat elderly lady. But that's the point.)
 * Ruritania: Many of the Cold War-era Mrs. Pollifax novels take place in various Communist nations, both real and fictional.
 * Shoe Phone: Mrs. Pollifax never goes anywhere without a spectacularly Nice Hat -- and eventually her CIA handlers start using her hats as part of her equipment.
 * Spy Fiction: The Mrs Pollifax series.
 * Wannabe Secret Agent: Averted with Mrs. Pollifax.  Although she decides to become a spy to help relieve the tedium of retired life, she doesn't go about building a fantasy of spycraft around herself -- she goes right to the CIA and applies for a job.  As a spy.
 * Write Who You Know: In The Tightrope Walker, the manuscript of an author's last novel, lost at her death and subsequently rediscovered, turns out to contain characters based on her relatives, and so keenly observed that their fates in the novel foreshadow events that occurred after the novel was completed.