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{{work|wppage=Emily Pollifax}}
[[File:Unexpected Mrs Pollifax Paperback.jpg|frame]]
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Along the way she makes friends from around the world and finds a new love of her life as well.
'''''Mrs. Pollifax''''' is a series of fourteen books written by the late [[Dorothy Gilman]] between 1966 and 2000. A mix of [[Spy Fiction]] and [[Mystery Fiction]], they expertly blend suspense, thrills and no small amount of comic relief. They span more than three decades starting in the mid-1960s, taking place in a world that is [[Like Reality Unless Noted|(mostly) identical to ours]], except with rare but genuine psychic powers and an [[Iraq]] that actually ''did'' have [[Weapon of Mass Destruction|weapons of mass destruction]] after the first Gulf War. Over the course of the series, Mrs. Pollifax's assignments and travel reflect the changing sociopolitical challenges of the world, ranging from Iron Curtain nations and Communist opposition, through African unrest, to Mideast terrorism. Throughout this, one of the constant themes of the series is how Mrs. Pollifax is drawn to help people in need who seem unconnected to her assignments. These either turn out to be unexpectedly related to her task, or become invaluable help in accomplishing it. Another is defying the marginalization and disempowerment of the elderly -- in her sixties, Emily Pollifax is just as capable as, and sometimes ''more'' so than, the experienced agents she works with and against.
The novels in the series are:
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* ''[[The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax (film)|The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax]]'' (1999), a [[TV Movie]] starring [[Angela Lansbury]]
{{
'''Note:''' If/when pages are created for each of the works in the franchise, please move the relevant tropes from here to the new pages.
* [[Absent-Minded Professor]]: Dr. Gibbons, a minor character from ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer'', is an almost stereotypically absent-minded academic.
* [[Abusive Parents]]: Amanda Pym's parents in the backstory of ''Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled'' were emotionally abusive, denying her love and any kind of support or encouragement, and treating her as an unwanted burden which was impoverishing them.
* [[Accidental Hero]]: In ''Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled'', Amanda Pym -- feeling that she has nothing to live for -- attempts [[Suicide by Cop|Suicide by Hijacker]], only for it to go wildly different from what she'd expected, leading to the rescue of over two hundred hostages and her being hailed as a hero.
* [[The Alcatraz]]: The Panchevsky Institute in Communist [[Bulgaria]] in ''The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax''.
* [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking]]: Near the end of ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief'', Mrs. Pollifax refers to "people chasing us, shooting at us, and generally being tiresome".
* [[Badass Grandpa|Badass Grandma]]: Mrs. Pollifax, in such a quiet and lowkey way that people are often ''very'' surprised when she shows just how badass she is.
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* [[Blasting It Out of Their Hands]]: At the climax of ''Mrs. Pollifax Pursued'', Kadi uses her [[Improbable Aiming Skills]] to shoot a knife out of the hand of a would-be murderer from across a crowded carnival tent.
* [[Borrowed Catchphrase]]: In ''The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax'', Mrs. Pollifax and Colin both echo Sandor's "Wotthehell" at least once each.
* [[Bottle Episode]]/[[Locked in a Room]]: Some 70% or so of ''The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax'' consists of Mrs. Pollifax and John Farrell (and the occasional false prisoner spying on them) held together in a cell in Cold War-era [[Albania]]. Played with in that Mrs. Pollifax is allowed out of the cell every once in a while, mostly for exercise and bathroom breaks.
* [[British Accents]]: Discussed in-universe by Robin Burke-Jones in the fifth book.
* [[Bulungi]]: Ubangiba, a fictional sub-Saharan African nation appearing in ''Mrs. Pollifax Pursued'' and ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Lion Killer''.
* [[Bungled Suicide]]:
** Mrs. Pollifax's own suicidal tendencies in the earliest part of the first book are thwarted by a neighbor.
** At the other end of the series, in ''Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled'', Amanda Pym -- feeling that she has nothing to live for -- attempts [[Suicide by Cop|Suicide by Hijacker]], only to [[Accidental Hero|accidentally become a hero instead]], leading to the rescue of over two hundred hostages.
* [[The Caper]]: Ambrose Vica arranges for Farrell to commit one for him in ''The Second Thief''.
* [[Catch Phrase]]: "Wotthehell" for Sandor in ''The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax''.
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** The last quarter or so of ''The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax'' has {{spoiler|Dr. Guillaume Belleaux}} and his mooks chasing Mrs. Pollifax and {{spoiler|Magda Ferenci-Sabo}}.
** Most of the first third to half of ''Golden Triangle'' is an extended chase scene, as Mrs. Pollifax and an ally pursue the men who abducted her husband.
** The action starts in ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Second
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: It's made clear early on in the series that Carstairs has superiors, but they remain off-screen and unnamed -- until the eighth book, where one of his superiors is given a name, and shortly thereafter turns out to be part of the book's plot. He's mentioned occasionally in subsequent books, but never again plays a substantial part in a story.
* [[Chekhov's Skill]]: Is practically a theme in the third book. Everyone Emily is working with turns out to have something they can contribute to the [[Great Escape|jailbreak from the Panchevsky Institute]], and all of these skills and resources get mentioned -- as apparently throwaway details -- well before they become plot points.
* [[CIA Evil, FBI Good]]: The CIA side of this trope is simultaneously averted ''and'' invoked. 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 (while Carstairs protested that it wasn't his group that was responsible). Meanwhile, FBI agents show up throughout the series, and while their priorities are different from those of the CIA, they are still trustworthy allies clearly on the same side.
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* [[Dance Party Ending]]: Well, maybe not dancing, ''per se'', but Mrs. Pollifax delays her return to the United States at the end of ''The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax'' because a party is being thrown in her honor.
* [[Darker and Edgier]]: Although none of Mrs. Pollifax's adventures could possibly be described as "fun romps", ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha'' is substantially darker in tone and details than the other books in the series, including among other moments Mrs. Pollifax's [[Cold-Blooded Torture]] at the hands of a terrorist.
* [[Death Faked for You]]: In ''Innocent Tourist'', the Iraqi authorities who had intended to arrest author Dib Assen instead claimed they had killed him when he eluded them thanks to their own overconfidence. Because he had escaped into the desert to make his way to Syria, he wasn't able to contradict their story, and everyone believed it.
* [[Death Seeker]]: Emily gives every indication of being this in the first few chapters of ''The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax'', thanks to being so engulfed in ''ennui''. She nearly walks off the roof of her apartment building (and has to be stopped from doing so by a neighbor) and even while interviewing for a job as a spy at the CIA emphasizes that her value is [[More Expendable Than You|her expendability]], that she can be sacrificed to save a younger, better-trained agent. Of course, once she gets a taste of spy work, and discovers she's ''good'' at it, these tendencies disappear (and stay disappeared as long as she gets her yearly "fix" of espionage).
* [[Double Agent]]:
** ''The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax'' has two: {{spoiler|Dr. Guillaume Belleaux}} (although as he notes at one point he is -- or was -- more properly a sleeper agent) and {{spoiler|Magda Ferenci-Sabo}}.
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** In ''Mrs. Pollifax Pursued'' {{spoiler|Henry Bidwell}} suffers an Emotional faint upon having his plans, and the fraud he executed to accomplish them, revealed and thwarted.
** Mrs. Pollifax faints in the wake of a bullet wound and several severe shocks, all within a few minutes, in ''Innocent Tourist''.
* [[Faking the Dead]]: {{spoiler|Dib Assen}} in ''Innocent Tourist''. In an unusual case, his enemies [[Death Faked for You|''did it for him'']] to save face, having announced his arrest ''before'' actually arresting him, giving him time to evade them, and then announcing that they had killed him to explain why they didn't have him in custody.
* [[First-Name Basis]]: Almost exclusively averted for the title character -- even close friends (and the narrative voice) call her "Mrs. Pollifax" (if, like Farrell, they don't have a nickname for her).
** The first time she explicitly tells someone to call her Emily is a telling moment, as it marks a deepening in the relationship between her and Cyrus Reed, the man who would become her second husband.
** The second time she does so is several books later at the end of ''The Second Thief'', marking the transition of Franca di Assaba from helpful acquaintance to personal friend.
* [[Foreign Money Is Proof of Guilt]]: In ''The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax'', the Underground uses the counterfeit Russian rubles she smuggled into Bulgaria to frame and discredit the general who threatened to overthrow the existing regime.
* [[Fortune Teller]]: Anyeta of the Inglescu Gypsies in ''The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax'' chooses to trust Emily based on doing a palm reading. That said, she appears to be a genuine [[Seers|seer]].
* [[From Bad to Worse]]: What usually happens to Mrs. Pollifax's missions, often because of her tendency to [[Spot the Thread|Spot]] and [[Pull the Thread]], or to try to help someone in need. In the earlier books, her innocence of proper tradecraft would sometimes cause problems as well. And in some cases her missions go wrong through no fault of her own.
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"Now ''that''," said Mrs. Pollifax, "is one of the nicest complements I've had from a professional."}}
* [[Gory Discretion Shot]]: ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha'' has several, most prominently Mrs. Pollifax's torture at the hands of a terrorist. For the murder of Mr. Detwiler, Emily provides her own discretion shot, by closing her eyes before he is shot by one of the terrorists. And Gilman ends a chapter just before a gunfight breaks out... then picks up again well after it's over.
* [[Granny Classic]]: Mrs. Pollifax, even with more than a dozen missions under her belt. It's part of what makes her such a good agent.
* [[Gray Eyes]]: Psychic Albert Hitchens from ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong Kong Buddha'' has "silver" eyes, the "spiritual" version to go with his psychic abilities.
* [[Great Escape]]: Mrs. Pollifax engineers one for Philip Trenda and several members of a nascent Bulgarian Underground from Communist Bulgaria's Panchevsky Institute in the third book.
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* [[In Medias Res]]: ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief'' opens up on Emily already on a mission, although to be fair she's only been active for a couple hours at that point and hasn't yet been dispatched on the main part of the assignment.
* [[Interpol Special Agent]]: Interpol agents make occasional appearances during her adventures:
** In ''A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax'', [[Gentleman Thief]] Robin Burke-Jones is [[Recruiting the Criminal|recruited by Interpol]] at the end.
** Robin later reappears as an Interpol agent in ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Hong King Buddha''; unlike the usual fictional agent he has a partner and backup.
** {{spoiler|Signore Ambrose Vica}} in ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief'' surprises everyone when he reveals that, while not exactly an Interpol agent, he works closely with them.
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*** By the tenth book, Carstairs refers to her as "Emily" in private conversations with Bishop.
** Bishop and Carstairs, although the latter occasionally gets addressed as "Bill". (Bishop apparently doesn't use his first name because it is ''also'' William, presumably to avoid confusion with his boss.)
* [[Like Reality Unless Noted]]: Mrs. Pollifax's version of Earth is just like the "real world" except for rare but genuine psychic powers, and the nations of [[Bulungi|Ubangiba]] and [[Qurac|Zabya]]. And [[Iraq]] actually had [[Weapon of Mass Destruction|WMDs]].
* [[Line-of-Sight Name]]: More properly, a Line-of-Thought Name: when pressed for a (fake) name to give a woman she's speaking with in book seven, Mrs. Pollifax initially draws a blank, then introduces herself as [[Punny Name|"Irma Blank"]].
* [[Little Old Lady Investigates]]: Mrs. Pollifax gets her first actual investigatory assignment in the fourth book, but lack of an official assignment didn't stop her in any of the other books.
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* [[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.
* [[Martial Arts Uniform]]: Mrs. Pollifax is occasionally shown wearing a gi and practicing her karate in her living room in the early scenes of her books, before she receives a mission.
* [[The Matchmaker]]: Mrs. Pollifax clearly intends to play the matchmaker for Robin and Court in ''A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax'', but doesn't really get to do much before events sweep her up. They end up falling for each other anyway.
* [[May-December Romance]]: Farrell (mid-40s) and Kate Rossiter (26, and looks 18) in ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief''. Sadly, it doesn't last.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: We are first told that Mrs. Pollifax lives in the "Hemlock" apartments while she is still gripped by ''ennui'' and is [[Death Seeker|borderline suicidal]].
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* [[The Mole]]: Naturally Mrs. Pollifax runs into moles on either side on a regular basis, starting with {{spoiler|Col. Nexhdet}} in Albania in the first book. The second book is entirely about rescuing another.
** Yet another -- {{spoiler|Joseph Forbes}} -- shows up in ''Mrs. Pollifax on the China Station'', this time for the KGB.
* [[More Expendable Than You]]: One of the reasons Mrs. Pollifax offered her initial interviewer at the CIA for hiring her -- she could be sacrificed to protect a younger, better-trained agent.
* [[Multiple Choice Past]]: Farrell seems to have one, mostly for fun, such as when he describes his parents as flamenco-dancing vaudevillians in ''Unveiled''.
* [[Mystery Fiction]]: No few of Mrs. Pollifax's adventures are better described as mysteries instead of espionage stories, even when she is on a formal mission. ''Mrs. Pollifax Pursued'' is a good example -- she gets involved in several "whodunnits" that are all part of a larger case that has nothing to do with espionage issues, even though it's big enough that Carstairs actually goes into the field to handle its conclusion.
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* [[Older Than They Look]]: CIA agent Kate Rossiter in ''Mrs. Pollifax and the Second Thief'' is 26 but looks no older than 18 or so, in part because of her freckles and ponytail.
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted twice:
** According to different books, Bishop and Carstairs share the first name William. Given that
** Bulgarian operative Assen Radev in ''The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax'', and Iraqi author Dib Assen in ''Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist''.
* [[Only One Name]]/[[Last-Name Basis]]:
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** Carstairs.
** Mr. Cheng of the Chinese Security Police in book six.
* [[Recruiting the Criminal]]: Interpol recruits [[Gentleman Thief]] Robin Burke-Jones at the end of ''A Palm for Mrs. Pollifax''.
* [[Recurring Character]]: John Sebastian Farrell (five books). Robin Burke-Jones (two books). Kadi Hopkirk (two books). Rashad "Aristotle" Bimms (two books).
* [[Retired Badass]]:
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** Played with in the case of John Sebastian Farrell from the first book. He retires from the CIA about a year after his adventure with Mrs. Pollifax, but instead of actually going into retirement ends up in Africa helping train and equip Rhodesian freedom fighters. Several years later he's gone back to running the art gallery he had in Mexico City in the very first book, but he still is doing the odd job on the side. And a couple years after that, he's starting to make good money as an artist himself. While still performing the occasional mission for a friend.
* [[Roma]]: A key part of ''The Amazing Mrs. Pollifax'' -- the person whom she was sent to aid has a long and friendly association with the Inglescu, a band of Gypsies in Turkey, and Mrs. Pollifax is able to enlist their help (and, indeed, becomes one of their rare ''gajo'' friends in the process).
* [[Ruritania]]: Two of the Cold War-era ''Mrs. Pollifax'' novels take place in Eastern European Communist nations: [[Albania]] in the first book of the series, and [[Bulgaria]] in the third.
* [[Sacred Hospitality]]: Sheikh Jidoor and his family are outraged when Farrell is kidnapped from their encampment in ''Mrs. Pollifax, Innocent Tourist'' -- it's a ''massive'' violation of Bedouin hospitality traditions.
* [[Safecracking]]: Farrell indulges a couple of times during ''The Second Thief''.
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** An earlier CIA scandal resulted in a strongly-worded ''phone call'' from Mrs. Pollifax, who was unhappy with what another part of the agency had been up to.
* [[Suicide by Cop|Suicide by Hijacker]]: What a depressed Amanda Pym attempts in the backstory of ''Mrs. Pollifax Unveiled'', only to [[Bungled Suicide|accidentally become a hero]].
* [[Tap on the Head]]: Mrs. Pollifax's "karate chops" invariably knock their targets cold with one shot.
* [[Tempting Fate]]: Carstairs all but says "[[What Could Possibly Go Wrong?]]" when he chooses to send Mrs. Pollifax to Bulgaria in ''The Elusive Mrs. Pollifax''. Naturally, things go wildly different from what he anticipated.
* [[Title Drop]]:
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[[Category:Mystery Fiction]]
[[Category:Long Running Book Series]]
[[Category:Pages with working Wikipedia tabs]]
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