The setting for this book was unusual and very interesting. I have read many World War II novels, but this one was set primarily in devastated post-war Germany. The detail of this environment allowed me to envision circumstances I had not previously considered. While the descriptions were rich and well written, they unfortunately became extraneous in places. It seemed the author described everyone's physical appearance in minute detail, what they were wearing, what they were eating, how the rooms were furnished, etc. I felt completely bogged down by superfluous information. While, a certain amount of descriptive content is necessary to establish setting, context and mood, this author did not know when to stop. While some readers may enjoy this level of detail, I skimmed almost all of it, which felt wasteful.
There is a good spy novel buried among all of this verbiage. A female British school teacher is recruited to go to Germany and track down a man and his wife who are guilty of heinous war crimes. In an unexpected twist, this character was killed toward the end of the novel. Rarely does an author kill off the main character. This added an extra dose of realism.
Those readers expecting a happy ending where the bad guys have to pay for their crimes, will be disappointed. The author took another chance with this nontraditional ending that may also feel anticlimactic.
In summary, there is a very good story here that is not entirely predictable. In my opinion, some of the less relevant details could be condensed. This story does not need so much filler.

Thanks to netgalley for providing me with an advanced reading copy in exchange for my honest review.

Although not a book I would purchase in my professional life, it is one that I will be recommending in my volunteer life!

World War II is over, but a new kind of war is beginning. Edith Graham signs on to work as an Education Officer for the Control Commission to help re-establish schools in occupied Germany. She is also tasked to help find a Nazi war criminal she was close to before the War. She soon finds herself in a world of intrigue and danger. Powerful countries are trying to prosecute war criminals and adjusting to growing tensions while Germans try to survive. As a food and cooking enthusiast, Edith uses recipes and dining notes to code her messages.

I found the first half of the book to be just okay. But the second half picked up, and I was glad I’d stuck with it. The pace picked up with the urgency within the story on through to the surprising end.

Overall, this was an interesting read. Some parts were confusing to me with keeping up with the characters.
Very descriptive and well written story.

I received a ARC of Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook. I enjoyed reading this book. It takes place after WWII. There was new information on how the war affected the towns and the people who lived in that time.. There were surprise twists and turns and a unexpected ending. Starts out slow but pace picks up 3rd of a way thru. I would recommend this book.

I love books about spies and strong female leads. Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook is a wonderful blend of both of those things. This book is set at the end of WWII and is a fantastic story. I really enjoyed the way food played into things! Definitely recommend this one!

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Collins/William Morrow for the ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review.

This was a fantastically different account of WWII/Cold War historical fiction. Miss Graham was assigned to a small town in Germany as part of the Control Commission. She is also a spy for OSS. She communicates in code through recipes she collects through her travels. Very well woven story with bold characters that pull you in until the end. There are a few unexpected twists near the end of the book that I wasn't expecting at all, but made it that much better.
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishing for this advanced copy.

A very intense read. An unexpected find for this year on my search of stepping out of my usual reads.Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the review copy.

Miss Edith Graham wants more from her life and wants it to be exciting. The war has just ended and the Control Commission is looking for British citizens to travel to Germany and help to rebuild but also to prosecute those accused of war crimes. Edith applies and is accepted as an Education Officer to assist in rebuilding German schools. At the same time, her Cousin Leo (in the Secret Service), talks her into becoming a spy for them in order to help find some of the most wanted war criminals. As Edith has an alter-personality of Stella Snelling, writer of a cookery column, she hand her friend Dori decide that communications of her findings will be coded through recipes that she will send back from her travels....it seems the perfect method. As Edith is pulled further and further into the dangerous world of espionage, it becomes more and more difficult for her to keep friendships and spying separated. Who does she really trust? Who are her true friends? Has she been lied to in order to get what they want from her? All of these questions run through the reader's mind as we follow Edith and friends though the intricacies of spying and lying, understanding that the wrong move at the wrong time with the wrong people will be most costly. I enjoyed reading this book and felt the author gave good insight into what was happening post WWII in Germany as many tried to move on and others wanted to resurrect the Reich. The characters were well developed. The food descriptions were as bleak as the rations, and the way the recipes were coded was interesting. I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers in return for an honest review, which this has been. . #NetGalley #MissGrahamsColdWarCookbook

Miss Graham is such a lovely book. It's full of twists and turns, and you never quite know who to trust or believe. I love the bravery and ingenuity of the women in this book, as they navigate a world in turmoil. Female relationships play a hugely important role in this book, and it's a great historical story, with a unique perspective and storyline. The writing is beautifully crafted and I would recommend this to fans of historical fiction looking for something a little different from the norm.

There were too many characters to keep track of in this book. I liked the idea of using recipes as a code but I didn't feel that it was executed well.

I have had a thirst for female spies since the late 1980's. I read everything I can get my hands on. Miss Graham's was a different setting than many, in cold war Germany. I read this book in a matter of days. I just could not put it down. The author has created a wonderful cast of characters. Miss Edith Graham, takes a job with the British Control Commission, to overseeing the rebuilding of Germany. She wants to do something with her 30-something life and goes in planning to help with the schools, but her cousin Leo recruits her for a little spying. But he's not the only one who recruits her and so Edith begins to send coded messages under the guise of recipes and cooking instructions. They are in search of high ranking Nazis who have been in hiding and are planning to escape to South America. They must be stopped at all costs. The tension builds and builds with lots of double crossing until the reader is catapulted to the dramatic ending.
#MissGrahamsColdWarCookbook #NetGalley

The characters were engaging and the plot filled with twists and turns. I couldn't put the book down and resented having to go to work because I wanted to read more! Great book with characters I both cared about and despised for their lack of "character". If you are interested in WWII historical fiction this is a great book!

Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook.......unfortunately, I did not finish it. It felt as if there were too many characters and I was not pulled into the story. I continued to read the book for about one week, but wound up reading about 25% of the book. I did not feel invested in the characters or the storyline. Therefore, I am not able to rate the book.

Edith Graham is a young teacher in Britain that feels that now that the war is over she needs to do her part for the cause. She applies for the Control Commission and heads to Germany to help with the rebuilding efforts. However, while she is there she is also supposed to help find her ex-lover, a medical doctor, who is of particular interest to the British, the Americans, and the Russians.

Upon arriving in Germany what strikes Edith the first is that the winners, the occupying nations continue to keep the German people oppressed and hungry. Meanwhile the British are living high off the hog.

She also notes that the Germans are not very open people. They continue to watch their neighbors, report on them, hope for the rise of the Fourth Reich. These are not people that will offer true friendship.

Though the historical background and the recipes are beautifully presented and offer a very different perspective of post WWII Germany, this book is a glow read and at times lackluster.

Thank you to NetGalley and William Morrow Publishers for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I thought that the history part of this book was really interesting and I liked to hear about the treatment of post war Nazis. I thought that book was confusing at first - there were a lot of characters and it was hard to keep track of all of them. I was also a little disappointed by the ending - it was a little bit of let down.

Miss Graham's Cold War Cookbook covers the period of occupation in Germany right after World War 2, where espionage, trust (or lack thereof), and the recent war wreckage have brought havoc, poverty, and the interest of different countries to rise strategically.

Edith Graham has some connections within the British Secret Service, as well as with an old flame Kurt, who happens to be involved in some grotesque human expertimentation in Germany. Under the guise of an Education Officer, Edith is recruited as a spy. With all communication being read as it is routed, she uses recipes to suggest hints back to her colleagues in London.

There are so many books about World War 2, I found this story focusing on the aftermath to be a slightly different angle - and a historical fiction read that kept me engaged. Highly recommend it!

Thank you to Netgalley and to William Morrow for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

#MissGrahamsColdWarCookbook #NetGalley #spyfiction #femalelead #historicalfiction

Welcome to the Cold War. The same as the old war. Well, not exactly. But it feels like all the forces that set up – and set off, World War II are ALL still around. Even the ones that shouldn’t be after the defeat of the Nazis.

At the same time, in 1946 Germany, we also see the opening stages of what history calls the Cold War, which was only cold because most of the actual fighting was conducted through proxies.

But in the immediate aftermath of WW2, we see the seeds for the next 30ish years of history, along with a whole lot of dirty deeds done in the name of patriotism – or just plain survival.

On the one hand, Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook brings this slice of history to life, as Miss Graham finds herself caught between opposing forces – not all of whom were supposed to even be opposing.

As a British operative for the Control Commission for Germany, she’s there to assist with re-opening schools in Germany – and it’s a job that’s sorely needed. On the other hand, she’s trapped in the middle between Operation Paperclip, run by the U.S. and Operation Surgeon, run by Great Britain. Both agencies were formed with the purpose of whitewashing and using selected Nazi personnel with important skills – most famously Wernher von Braun – and denying those people and those skills to the Soviet Union. Justice for the atrocities committed by the Nazis was only to be served on those who were either too infamous to cover up, like Goebbels and Himmler, or too junior or commonplace to be of any use to the victors.

And there was definitely a third hand, that of the people looking for that justice denied. Both the surviving Jewish agents who had seen what happened for themselves, who had lost friends and family and needed an accounting and to see justice served.

Along with Vera Atkins, the director of the Women’s Section of the Strategic Operations Executive in Britain, who needed to find both closure and justice for the operatives that she personally sent into Occupied France and Nazi Germany. Operatives who were betrayed by someone in her own office. She needs to know who, and why, and how, and make sure they get punished for their treason.

If she can. If Edith Graham, using a code derived by a ubiquitous wartime cookbook, can manage to find the information – and keep it from everyone else who wants to use it – and her.

Escape Rating A: Parts of this story have been told before, as part of the action – the search for the fates of the missing female agents – formed the heart of last year’s The Lost Girls of Paris by Pam Jenoff.

But the story told in Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook is both larger, and in the end smaller, than that one. Although they do share a character in Vera Atkins, the real-life head of the Women’s Section of the Special Operations Executive. Atkins was the inspiration for Eleanor Trigg in Lost Girls (and also for Hilda Pierce in Foyle’s War).

Discovering the fate of those lost agents isn’t the only iron that Edith has in the fire in Germany. The bigger story is the one about the so-called “rehabilitation” of the reputations – and definitely not the beliefs – of any Nazis who had skills that could be useful in the coming Cold War. Even as early as 1946, no one in power seemed to have any appetite for bringing the butchers to justice, while everyone was looking to get a leg up on the opposition. Not to mention sniping at each other over the “best” prizes.

Edith is caught in the middle. She sees the conditions in post-war Germany for the hellscape that they have become. She wants to help those who can be helped – especially the children. She refuses to turn a blind eye to the many and varied forms of corruption all around her, not even the ones perpetrated by her own side.

In spite of being nearly 40, Edith has led a relatively sheltered life. She’s well-meaning, but naive to a fault. A fault that everyone around her is more than willing to exploit, from her German lover from before the war to her secretive cousin lurking somewhere in MI6. She may have come to do a job, but she’s there to be used.

And everyone does.

But in the process, following Edith as she does her best to save what she can, help who she can, and get justice where she can, we see that the idealized history that we’ve been taught about the postwar reconstruction of Germany was far, far from the dirty deeds done that couldn’t see the light of day.

So Edith’s part of this story is personal – and by pulling in to her focus, we’re compelled to follow her journey to its end. And beyond.

I pretty strongly feel that just because a book isn’t my “cup of tea” doesn’t mean another reader won’t fall absolutely in love with it.

That’s the case with Miss Graham’s Cold War Cookbook. The story has action, espionage, historical fiction, cold & biting facts about the horrors of the nazi regime. And at times, the book drew me in deeply, but most of the time I felt I struggled to get through it.

The story mainly follows Edith, a young woman embarking on a new journey after WWII. She has signed on to be part of a British-led commission in Germany to assist with reestablishing schools in the aftermath of the war. But before her assignment begins, she’s called in by her “cousin” and former flame, Leo. He enlists her to find another old boyfriend, Kurt. Unbeknownst to Edith, Kurt was an enthusiastic nazi, a high-ranking nazi engaged in horrendous medical experiments. And now Britain needed to find him.

Immediately after learning this bombshell, and agreeing to attempt to find him, Edith’s friend Dori asks her to further engage in espionage. You see, Britain doesn’t want Kurt for punishment, but rather to use his “research” and knowledge for their own purposes. Dori and her network however, do want to punish Kurt for his crimes.

And so begins Edith’s reluctant and surprising life as a spy.

Rees’ writing style was engaging. The story had multiple narrators and was a flashback setting. And I was definitely captivated by the story’s climax.

If you’re a fan of WWII fiction, this may be right in your wheelhouse! Overall I enjoyed it and felt I learned some information which I find most satisfying with historical fiction.

Espionage is not generally a topic I’m compelled to read about so that is likely the reason I found it only satisfactory.

I’ve never really thought about how spying and intrigue didn’t end when WWII ended. There were competing efforts (by different countries) in Germany and around the world to find former German military leaders, sometimes to punish them, other times to try and glean knowledge from them.

This book centers around Edith, a British woman who is ready for a new life after the war. She’s single, speaks German, and is a teacher, so it makes sense for the British Control Commission to send her to Germany to help rebuild schools for school children. This also makes a really good spy cover story and that’s just what happened to Edith. The British reached out to her, as did the Americans, and they all wanted help finding Edith’s former lover, Count Kurt von Stavenow. Even Edith’s cousin wants Edith’s help to track Kurt down.

Edith also cooks up (see what I did there?) a way to code her letters with details that will pass by the mail censors – she sends recipes with secret clues. The book is filled with regional recipes. Some sounded delicious and others not so much since many food supplies were in short supply and substitutions had to be made. At any rate, this was an excellent way to hide information and I wondered if anyone really did this during the war.

Edith has some great friends that help and hinder her efforts. One of her friends is trying to find out what happened to the women who were sent to France and Germany as spies and never heard from again. This reminded me of the book “Lost Girls of Paris” and if you liked that one, I think you would enjoy this one too. It was a bit complicated to keep track of who was reaching out to Edith and what stories she was feeding to each of them.

I enjoyed reading this one, although I did find it a bit long at 512 pages. If you want a book to curl up with on a lazy summer afternoon, this might just fit the bill. This one was full of strong female characters and the part they played in the war. In addition to “Lost Girls of Paris” I would recommend this one if you like books like “The Huntress.” This was my first read by this author and she has a robust vocabulary, I looked up countless words!