ALICE ÉCLAIR, SPY EXTRAORDINAIRE

Young pastry chef and spy Alice Éclair’s latest mission takes her to a film set at the Palace of Versailles, where she must discover who’s passing maps to the enemy—before the culprit discovers her identity.

In this third series entry set in interwar France, Alice’s spy mentor, Claude, is sure that American movie director Glen Carmine is the one smuggling information to the Germans and getting French agents caught, but Alice isn’t so sure. New spy recruit Pierre isn’t a team player, so Alice is on her own—at least until journalist and fellow spy Stella Blyth joins her. With her natural cleverness, pastry skills, and a few pieces of neat tech—spy camera, radio, flare—Alice surveils the set, but someone is making attempts on her life, so she has to work quickly to determine who’s guilty: the director, glamourous star Catrine Bell, the cameraman, or someone else? The stakes are high in this fast-paced addition to the series; the plot is complicated enough to be interesting but not too hard to follow, and the snowbound Versailles setting is enticing, as are Alice’s sugar creations. Alice faces sexism and ageism in 1930s Europe but proves she’s more than up to any task. Fans will enjoy this strong entry in the series, and new readers can easily jump right in. Characters read white.

A sparkling mystery.