Passenger to Frankfurt

the merits of this work by christie lie as i see them, not in the logical procedures of the detectivews work, or spy, but in the connection between the author's style, and the reason for the novel being wriiten. christie writes, from the height of her years, that she sought to rationalize the violent changes to society, several decades after such horrors should have been expunged when ww2 ended. the world was'nt playing like a gentleman. the style chosen, is very similar to that of several noted adventure writers from sir anthony hope, whose ruritania adventures are mentioned, to sir arthur conan doyle (not much liked by christie, one should note) and specifically his story "the final problem" which is alluded to in a character which i shall not reveal. it is true, that in the late 1960's espionage novels were very different in style from those that christie knew and assimilated in the early 20century, and thus one may feel as though sir anthony hope reappeared not much changed after 90 years, but christie is well aware of the discrepancies and presents them in a playful way. the result is not only a fond farewell to a much more sensible and sporting sense of skullduggery, but a concious addmission of personal anguish at seeing all sens flee from even the world of crime, not only the world itself. nobody blamed sir arthur conan doyle when he wrote serlock holmes into the general attempt to make sense of the horrors of ww1 in "the final problem". neither did we grudge superman and tarzan when they fought hitler. can we thus grudge agatha christie's small and playful last-ditch-attempt at making sense in a world gone mad? i don't think we should, or can. this book is fun.

Why do so many people hate this book? Probably because, having been spoiled for decades by the Queen of Crime, they narrow-mindedly refuse to indulge an old Lady and grant her the little pleasure of what she herself called 'an extravaganza', a 'story that is in essence a fantasy and pretends to be nothing more'. Cut her some slack, will you? One must acknowledge that witnessing the growing unrest in the world, violence, anarchy and plane-hijackings gave the 80-year-old author ideas and a certain fear of upheaval of the world order, which resulted in her sitting down and bringing this story to paper. That the villain is German is understandable I guess, having lived through two world wars, Mrs. Christie was certainly entitled to prejudice. I like the characters in the book and the places in which the story unfolds, especially when imagined as in an early 70's movie. As for the plot of a sinister organisation plotting to dominate the world, is it really implausible? Let me quote again from the books introduction, where it says that 'most things that happen (in the book) are happening, or giving promise of happening in the world of today. It is not an impossible story - it is only a fantastic one.' In writing this story Agahtha Christie held up a mirror to what she saw and thought the world had become or was in danger of becoming , and when you think about it, times have changed, but the world has not - at least not for the better. This story is timeless.

I am now on my third time reading this book in its entirety, and I still love it. Maybe it's my affection for the name Sir Stafford Nye, or maybe it's my fascination with the concept of political uprising, but I think this story is brilliantly written. I do agree that parts of it can be slow, and what makes it tedious is that every seemingly meaningless conversation is just the opposite. There is always a clue, or a hint, as to what is to come that you can't skip over. The beginning is extremely intruiging and the ending satisfies the twists and turns the novel give us. This is the type of story that you have to read again, and then again, because there are always subtle clues and passages that are important to the story that you may have missed the first time. Everyone should at the very least give this book a try. I'm sure most will love it.

this book goes practically nowhere at all, and is slightly confusing really, as to whose side everyone is on, etc. But, it is not the bad book that most of these reviews seem to make it out as. In all honesty, it really doesnt deserve the five star rating i have given it. In fact, four stars is a more accurate estimation of it's quality, but i have given it five stars to "raise the average". because it really doesnt deserve the two and a bit stars which it currently has. This book has some real plusses. It is brilliantly written. The language Christie uses is probably the best of all her novels. It is more well written and literary than some of them. There are some great characters (Stafford Nye, Mary Anne, Countess Wauldsausen (who we see unfortunately little of)) who really inspire interest in what is a rather perplexing plot. Perplexing why? Because there is actuall no real plot. It goes almost nowhere, and seems a bit pointless. Just written as a device to air some of Christie's views on the way society is sliding down the drain. Which is where the book does the major credit. The social observations, passages about the state of the world, its climate, its politics, the attitude of its people, its governments, is intensely interesting. Christie's take on the new "youth" is very interesting. Anarchy and rebellion ar ethe order of the day, and they do permeate this book with a strange sense of fear. Fear for the future, and what it holds for us in this strangely unstable world. This plot has a huge scope, exploring diplomacy, politics, forms of rule, government, vision for the future, and the state of the world. In that, it is truly excellent. The foreboding, doom, hopelessness of things is brought across well. This book also has a high count of people "just trying to do the right thing" in spite of so many people who disagree with them. so, as a plot driven novel, its not good. But, as a novel driven by ideas and notions about the state of world politics, then it is excellent. It's interesting, thought-provoking, with some great characters, and a nice prose style. A very different Christie book, and for all it's faults, it is one of the "great" ones. (As opposed to one of the "excellent" or "good" ones.)

I have to tell you readers that I am a young pre-teen, and am in the midst of reading this book. I have to say that I think the people who gave this book 1 star are incredibly unfair. It is true that Passenger to Frankfurt is very complex and at sometimes confusing, but the content is still good. I recommend this book to anyone who likes mysteries and is up to the challenge. Don't you thing Sir Stafford Nye is a wonderful name for a charachter?