Is THIS the worst Christie? Passenger to Frankfurt

 

Passenger to Frankfurt by Agatha Christie

published 1970

 

I recently wrote about The Big Four on the blog, saying I thought it was one of Agatha Christie’s worst books. I saw the post as merely being completism on my way to more interesting items in my Catchup Christie project, but it provoked a lot of interest and discussion online – and I was delighted to find that the book does have some defenders.

I’ll be interested to see if the same thing happens with this one. I have read it twice before, and confidently expected it to be awful on this re-read. And it is. I’m wondering which I would choose if I absolutely had to save one, between this and Big Four, and I think it might actually be Big Four. In my terms that’s a damning indictment.

Christie was 80 when Passenger was published. It’s a standalone spy thriller featuring a middle-aged diplomat called Sir Stafford Nye (a great name, it must be said – you could almost swear you had come across him in books of modern  history, flitting through the background assisting the great men of state). He has an encounter with a young woman in Frankfurt airport, with another Christie speciality: unlikely and unconvincing impersonation. She is on a dangerous unspecified mission, and he lends her his passport, his cloak and his identity so she can get back into the UK.

When he gets back to the UK, he is intrigued, and various other people in his circle are too, and he eventually makes contact with the young woman. It is not a bad setup, but sadly it is downhill from there on. There is a plot to foment unrest in the world, using charismatic leaders and misusing the idealism of young people. There is a connection with Wagner and Siegfried, and a strong German presence too. On and on it goes – vague conversations where people can’t quite remember what they mean, but ramble on, and a lot of old people’s grump about the awfulness of modern life. Then a sudden jump to a scientific discovery.

If I could bring myself to care, I would worry about the future of Lady Matilda’s local church. And, there used to be a sentence on the Wikipedia page on this book, suggesting an inheritance for Stafford’s young relative (described as a niece, but actually more likely a cousin) Sybil  - it has been removed and indeed was completely unjustifiable from the text.

I am going to leave the plot there and tiptoe away. Sadly, the glory days are gone.

Sir Stafford’s Great Aunt Matilda wears an old and shabby red dress by Jean Patou, in order to inhabit a persona: once rich, still posh. The 1950s picture also quite suggests the Mary Anne figure who is the younger elusive heroine. Lady Matilda has a companion/nurse who surprisingly turns out to be Amy Leatheran, the narrator of Murder in Mesopotamia.

Blogfriend Lucy Fisher has a post on the book, helpfully titled Is Agatha Christie's Passenger to Frankfurt the worst novel ever written? A step further than I am going.

And another blogfriend The Furrowed Middlebrow has an excellent post on the book here (not just because he agrees with me) – and the comments BTL are well worth reading too.