Title: Tinker Tailor Soldier Chef

Author: Philip Brady

Publication Date: February 1, 2022

Genre: Thriller/Humour

Number of Pages: 325

From Goodreads: Bond meets bake-off in a fast-moving comedy thriller. The hilarious follow-up to The Meal of Fortune.

Anna Preston’s MI5 career is finally on the up, back in the field and quite frankly killing it; exactly where she belongs. But when the trail goes cold on a terrorist plot, she has no way to find out more about the threatened attack. And no way to stop it.

Disgraced copper DI Mark Henwell, has problems of his own. Someone’s going around killing celebrities and London’s police don’t have a clue. With public outrage and pressure mounting on social media, he’s given one last chance to catch the killer and save his career. Or bury it trying.

But could there really be a link between the murders and the terrorist plot? And what does Dermot Jack, Anna’s former boyfriend and manager of a string of lowbrow celebrities, have to do with it all?

As the police and MI5 investigations collide, Anna, Dermot and Henwell are thrown together and a tense love triangle emerges. But with a murderer on the loose and a terrorist plot to foil, they really don’t have time for any of that.

Do they?

Thank you to Heather at Overview Media for inviting me to participate in this blog tour and providing me with a copy of this book and promotional materials for the tour in exchange for an honest review.

Just like The Meal of Fortune, Tinker Tailor Soldier Chef is one of those books where you want to read the blurb twice to make sure you read it correctly because it all seems just a little bit absurd. Fortunately, the blurb is correct, and the absurdity works well, making Tinker Tailor Soldier Chef a fun and memorable story.

This book switches between the perspective of three different characters, Anna from MI5, Dermot Jack, a celebrity agent, and DI Mark Henwell from the MET. Anna and Dermot are characters that the reader was introduced to in the first book in this series, but Henwell is new. I liked all three of these characters. I enjoyed reading more about Anna and Dermot, and I was glad to see what they had been up to since the previous book. Henwell was also a likeable enough character, and I could understand why he always seemed to be frustrated with his superiors. I also liked meeting the cast of side characters in this book, which added a lot to the story.

The plot of this book is absolutely ridiculous, which made this book fun to read. There’s someone in London killing off a bunch of celebrities, and MI5 thinks it might be part of a bigger terrorist plot. The three main characters, who frankly have no business even knowing each other, work together to see if they can crack the case before it’s too late. Unfortunately, I figured out who was behind the plot relatively early on, but I still enjoyed the action and shenanigans leading up to the final scene.

Overall, it was nice to read something fun and memorable. I also want to point out that if you haven’t read the first book in this series, you can totally read it without being confused or worrying about spoilers because anytime the crimes from the first book are mentioned, they’re met with a comment about how they’re classified.

Rating: 3.5 Stars!

Phil lives in west London with his wife two children and some animals, which also like to call the house home.

He is somewhat obsessed and bemused with the public and media’s fixation with celebrities of every stripe. This forms the backdrop of his books, which also tend to feature spies, gangsters, hit men and TV chefs.

His first novel, The Meal of Fortune, was published in 2017, with a second edition following in 2021. The follow up. Tinker Tailor Soldier Chef will be published in 2022.

Phil’s main rule in life is never to let tomato ketchup touch any food that is green. This may not have any deep meaning, nor may it be the soundest of principles to live by – but it’s better than many he’s come across down the years. Best not to go there though.

If you’re interested, you can pick up a copy of Tinker Tailor Soldier Chef from Amazon* here!

Disclaimer: Some of my posts made on my blog will include affiliate links, which will be marked with an asterisk (*). As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. This comes at no additional cost to you. 

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