Passenger to Frankfurt Book

"I hate to say it, but this was terrible. Dear Agatha was really losing it. Laughably, this is subtitled ""an Extraganza"", but it's more like a disaster.

Passenger is one of her thrillers, although the word hardly applies. Set in 1970, it starts out promisingly with unambitious diplomat Sir Stafford Nye accepting a daring proposal from the beautiful and enigmatic Countess Renata in the Frankfort airport. The next 100 pages are engaging as he tries to track down this woman, avoids some near death experiences, and meets with his amusing great aunt. But then Agatha Christie totally forgets about that plot and spends another 160 pages underdeveloping a Youth riot/neo-Nazi/world domination scheme where the same characters are rarely seen in more than one chapter and the so-called mystery/murder is an afterthought in the last chapter (no clues anywhere that I can see). And then a nonsensical epilogue.

I had read this as a child but didn't really remember very well; now I see why. It's full of rants about youth which are sadly typical of late Christie. The only thing I can say is that an author needs to start rewrites from page 100 on with the premise. I really can't even recommend this for completists. "