Passenger to Frankfurt
Espionage Mystery Crime Fiction Spy Thriller Cold War Thriller Political Thriller Vintage Mystery
Agatha Christie’s 1970 spy-thriller “Passenger to Frankfurt” is one of the most collectible first-edition Christies you can own: a Dodd Mead U.S. hard-cover issued the same year the Queen of Crime turned eighty. Unlike her familiar country-house puzzles, this globe-trotting Cold-War tale opens when a bored diplomat at Frankfurt airport hands his passport to a terrified young woman—and suddenly both their lives rocket through a maze of political double agents, secret laboratories and a shadowy plan to destabilise Europe. The novel’s break-neck pace, moral urgency and prescient look at 1970s terrorism make it a fascinating bridge between Christie’s classic whodunits and the modern international thriller.
For collectors, the book’s scarcity in first-issue state is the real story. Most copies were read to pieces in the Nixon era; this 1970 printing still carries its original dust jacket (edge-worn but complete) and the crisp, unread text block that signals a copy that spent decades safely shelved, not passed around holiday rentals. The boards are square, the binding tight, pages bright and unmarked—no ex-library stamps, no inscriptions, no dog-ears. It is exactly the sort of high-grade survivor that drives Christie prices upward every auction cycle.
Owning this vintage first edition puts you in the company of serious mystery bibliophiles: it is the final Agatha Christie novel released in her lifetime, the last to bear the iconic Dodd Mead colophon, and the only one set against the espionage paranoia of the early 1970s. Display it spine-out with other Golden-Age giants, gift it to a Christie completist, or tuck it away as an appreciating asset—demand for unrestored jacketed copies has doubled in the past five years. Wherever it travels next, “Passenger to Frankfurt” delivers the dual thrill of an edge-of-your-seat spy caper and a blue-chip piece of twentieth-century publishing history.
Refer to our eBay listing for a full condition report and many more high-quality pictures of this item.
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