A Spoonful of Spying
Sarah Todd Taylor
Nosy Crow

Both baker par excellence at her mother’s patisserie in Paris and a somewhat unconventional spy, Alice Sinclair has an exciting double life. In this story she is working alongside a new senior partner Claude.

Now her patisserie skills extraordinaire have taken her to the World Fair being held in Paris, where again she finds herself combining her baking expertise with espionage.

Both artists and inventors are attending the fair and thanks to a chance encounter with Eva, one of the models, Alice finds herself thrown into the world of high end fashion, (the author’s amazing descriptions of the dresses and outfits matches those of the cakes). After employing her brilliant creative artistry to impress designer, Monsieur Fouray, from her vantage point in the fashion hall she is able to continue to work undercover as a spy watching the audience and trying to decide if anyone is acting suspiciously.

With people going missing, it soon appears to Alice that there are enemy agents with different interests: innovative clothing designs and ground-breaking aviation in the form of an aircraft prototype, code-named ‘Daedalus’. Could there perhaps be a connection?

Clues and suspects mount, then Alice makes another young friend, a talented engineer named Sophie who has made a glider. Both Sophie and Eva subsequently come to Alice’s aid just when she needs: Sophie with her glider and Eva on a motorbike. But who are the two students that Alice keeps on seeing and is Sophie too trusting of them? With so much at stake, will brave, determined Alice be able to draw all the threads together and save friends, families and more.

Sarah Todd Taylor gets your taste buds tingling right from the outset, gradually turning up the heat and keeping the reader guessing until the plot reaches its dramatic and satisfying denouement. I really love the way the new characters contribute to this show stopping sequel.