Instead, observation and satirical comments are used to create a series of situations which will make the reader giggle.
Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy’s humour is not the laugh-out-loud kind.
It is difficult to imagine a contrast greater than that between the worlds of bake sales and play dates on one hand and secret agents and bugging devices on the other, but Brann cleverly and convincingly combines the two. The comedic device of juxtaposition is used with brilliant effect in Faye Brann’s debut novel, which won the 2020 Comedy Women in Print Prize. When the assignment gets uncomfortably close to home, Vicky must decide if she has got what the job takes after all, and if home is really where her heart is. So, when a newcomer on the PTA sets alarms bells ringing and the Joint Operations Intelligence Service comes calling, she’s determined to prove that despite her expanding waistline and love of pink gin, she’s still every bit the cold-eyed special operative. But beneath the school runs and bake sales, Vicky had never quite said goodbye to the past. Not even her husband, and certainly not the other mums at the school gate. And apart from being outstandingly good at paintball, no one would ever know that in a past life she was an undercover spy and has been trained to kill a man with her bare hands. Vicky Turnbull has never regretted giving up her career for family life in the suburbs. Having it all has never been so challenging. To make matters even more complicated, Vicky’s loving husband believes she used to travel the world to assess works of art, when in fact she was taking out the bad guys – in more ways than one. Returning to work is challenging enough without having to keep a revolver, a stunner and a WASP injection knife out of reach of tiny hands.
After unwittingly passing an ‘audition’ at her friend’s paintball party, she is recalled to active service and sent on refresher courses to update her technology skills and renew her weapons licence. Licensed to kill but in thrall to the PTA, a choice between full-time home-making and a return to her former career in espionage faces Victoria Turnbull.
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