Passenger to Frankfurt by
Agatha Christie
pbk out May 03
(HarperCollins)
at £5.99
This is one of those rare crime novels to which Agatha Christie provided an
introduction, offering a glimpse of the concerns which led her to tell the story. She
says that 'fear is awakening' and talks of the hi-jacking of planes, of violence and of
hate. She speculates about an international campaign based upon a 'maniacal desire
for destruction'. Yet of course, she was not describing the events of 9/11 and their
causes and consequences, but rather her perception of England in 1970.
'Passenger to Frankfurt' is far removed from the classic Christie detective novels. The first edition of the book (but not the Christie Collection edition) described the story on
the title page as an 'extravaganza'. Sir Stafford Nye, a gifted but easily bored
diplomat, is in the transit passenger lounge at Frankfurt when he falls into
conversation with a mysterious young woman. Claiming that her life is at risk, she
persuades him to give her his cloak, his passport and his boarding ticket; in return, he
is offered simply 'diversion', something out of the everyday run of things. What
follows is not to be taken seriously, even though the author's tone here is darker than
in her earliest thriller romps, such as 'The Secret of Chimneys'. But there are lines
which, although intended as a comment on life at the start of the 70s, strike a chord
today, as when Colonel Pikeaway says: 'News from Jerusalem is very bad. News
from Syria is very bad.' The more things change, perhaps, the more they stay the
same. Christie admits that her novel is a 'fantasy', but claims it is not an impossible
story, merely a fantastic one.
(
Martin Edwards
- author of the highly acclaimed Harry Devlin Mysteries)
Passenger to Frankfurt by
Agatha Christie
