Passenger to Boredom

Rating: ☆

Title: Passenger to Frankfurt

Author: Agatha Christie

Genre: Fiction / Thriller

Read: 22 Dec 2008



Comments: This novel is probably the worst Christie I've ever read, and I've read more than 60 of her novels, so that's saying something. It was written in her 80s and advertised as "an extravaganza", but it fails miserably. The first few chapters are pure Christie; a beautiful lady spy and a handsome diplomat have a chance encounter at an airport leading to mystery and intrigue, but it goes precipitously downhill from there.

The main theme of the novel is a ridiculous worldwide neo-nazi youth movement, loosely based on the student movements of the 60s, but it seems far-fetched and ludicrous showing more than anything Christie's lack of knowledge or empathy for the real youth of the period. The last chapter seems to be an attempt to return to her classic style with the unmasking of the master criminal, but the character was so minor, I'd forgotten who they were after slogging through the intervening chapters.

I wouldn't recommend this to anyone but die-hard Christie fans like myself who are dead-set on reading everything she's ever written.

Passenger to Frankfurt