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bibliocat's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.25
This book was surprisingly interesting. Despite there being no Poirot or Miss Marple, nor the usual story beats that go with those characters, Destination Unknown was a pretty good spy story.
Our spy in this case is an unlikely one - Hilary Craven, a woman with trauma who wants to get away from it all. She leaves England to go on vacation to Morocco where she plans on committing suicide due to the loss of her child. Her plane crashes. On recovery, she is recruited by government agents to impersonate a woman who died on the same plane, whose husband, Tom Betterton, is one of various scientists that have gone missing. Although I would like to know how many times random civilians are recruited for such missions in real life....
Since she accepts that the danger risks are high, and doesn't care what happens to her because of the previous trauma, she agrees to find the husband. Her travels to get to that point and the characters she meets seem to be a natural progression.
There is one small interlude in a restaurant where Hilary is observing an extremely rich man dining there, and as he passes her table, he spills her drink. Even at that point I was highly suspicious that this very rich man was going to become very important to the plot later in the book. Oh, yes, he definitely shows up again.
What I found most compelling about this book is we learn more about some of the missing scientists and what was compelling them to go missing. This book was published in 1954, so nine years after the atomic bomb was set off in New Mexico. I wonder if this was Agatha Christie's reaction to the times. Unlike modern anti-intellectual times, the scientists and their collective brain power was considered IMPORTANT. Skills worth having. However, were those skills to be used for good, or evil??? We do find out where these missing scientists went, and Hilary was the contrasting character. She looked at what was going on there, and couldn't believe they'd want to be in that environment.
Also, because the book came out in the 1950's, AC of course wrote in period-appropriate racism and racial stereotypes, which pop out uncomfortably for 21rst century readers.
This wasn't the typical Agatha Christie mystery, but it gave me a lot to think about it. One last thought about it that amused me- while reading it, all that would have to happen to make it a science fiction story would be just shift it to a moon base or something, and it still would have been the same story.
Our spy in this case is an unlikely one - Hilary Craven, a woman with trauma who wants to get away from it all. She leaves England to go on vacation to Morocco where
Since she accepts that the danger risks are high, and doesn't care what happens to her because of the previous trauma, she agrees to find the husband. Her travels to get to that point and the characters she meets seem to be a natural progression.
There is one small interlude in a restaurant where Hilary is observing an extremely rich man dining there, and as he passes her table, he spills her drink. Even at that point I was highly suspicious that this very rich man was going to
What I found most compelling about this book is we learn more about some of the missing scientists and what was compelling them to go missing. This book was published in 1954, so nine years after the atomic bomb was set off in New Mexico. I wonder if this was Agatha Christie's reaction to the times. Unlike modern anti-intellectual times, the scientists and their collective brain power was considered IMPORTANT. Skills worth having. However, were those skills to be used for good, or evil??? We do find out where these missing scientists went, and Hilary was the contrasting character. She looked at what was going on there, and couldn't believe they'd want to be in that environment.
Also, because the book came out in the 1950's, AC of course wrote in period-appropriate racism and racial stereotypes, which pop out uncomfortably for 21rst century readers.
This wasn't the typical Agatha Christie mystery, but it gave me a lot to think about it. One last thought about it that amused me- while reading it, all that would have to happen to make it a science fiction story would be just shift it to a moon base or something, and it still would have been the same story.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Suicidal thoughts, Antisemitism, and Classism
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