The Secret War of Julia Child

Chambers (The Star of India) mines legendary chef Julia Child’s lesser-known career as an American intelligence operative during WWII in this clichéd outing. Julia McWilliams, as she’s known in 1942, begins her espionage career in Washington, D.C., as a clerk for the OSS. She’s promoted to records supervisor after stumbling into a rendezvous in place of an injured agent and recovering evidence of a Nazi plot to assassinate all three allied heads of state. After persuading OSS founder “Wild Bill” Donovan to send her into the field, she’s assigned to India, where she spies on Lord Mountbatten, chief of the South East Asia Command, a British military unit suspected of harboring a mole. Julia unmasks the traitor, before continuing her adventures in Burma and China, including meeting with Chiang Kai-shek himself, as well as the man who eventually becomes her husband, Paul Child, another American operative. There are some fun if far-fetched action sequences, as Julia survives her ship exploding at sea, swimming through shark-infested waters, and a bayonet attack. Unfortunately, there are too many torrid descriptions of her romance with Paul (“Her knees weakened.... The explosions continued through the night”), and the foreshadowing of Julia’s future success as a cook is heavy-handed. This fails to live up to the potential of its premise. (Oct.)