Peril in Paris

It’s just before the start of World War Two and, in Wilderstein Castle in Arnovia, Princess Anna is growing more and more suspicious of her new governess, who doesn’t seem to care about teaching her and her brother, the Crown Prince.

Meanwhile, Sophie Taylor, co-proprietor of the Taylor & Rose Detective Agency, has been summoned to the Secret Service Bureau for a top-secret mission in Paris: impersonate the niece of a murdered Bureau consultant and codebreaker. Will Sophie manage to impersonate Celia Blaxland and find out who murdered the Professor? And with Arnovia under threat from invasion, what danger are Anna and her brother Prince Alex really in?

This first book in a new series from the creator of the popular Sinclair’s Mysteries detective series delves into the world of spycraft, inspired by the spy bureaus established in the early 1900s that would become MI5 and MI6. Sophie and Lil are a great pair of well-drawn young women in a changing time – suffrage is in the background, as is the coming war, and Woodfine brings a new cast of characters to life too, from the M-esque “C” at Bureau headquarters, to friend Mei and her family.

Riveting from the start and full of delightful twists.