The Secret War of Julia Child

Set during World War II, this historical fiction novel imagines a fictionalized account of the early life of Julia McWilliams, the woman who would later become famous as Julia Child, the television chef and cookbook author. A brief framing scene set in 2002 shows an elderly Julia reflecting on her wartime years in Asia, where her senses came alive, she discovered her true capabilities, and she met her future husband, Paul Child. The narrative then returns to 1943 and follows Julia through the final years of the war.

In September 1943, 31-year-old Julia is working in Washington, DC, as supervisor of the secret document Registry for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), America's wartime intelligence agency headed by General William "Wild Bill" Donovan. One evening, she answers Donovan's private red telephone, a line she is not authorized to use, and receives a call from a hospitalized agent who tells her she must deliver $50,000 to a contact at Union Station before midnight, or thousands of Danish Jews facing Nazi deportation will die. Julia completes the exchange and receives a miniature spy camera. Donovan reprimands her the next morning but soon reveals that the camera contained intelligence about a Nazi plot to assassinate Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin, and that her actions helped rescue Danish Jews, including the physicist Niels Bohr.

Julia lobbies for an overseas posting under Lord Mountbatten's South East Asia Command (SEAC). Donovan eventually recruits her as his secret intelligence officer, assigning her a private book cipher, a code system in which a shared copy of a novel serves as the key, and the code name "Scout." Her mission is to monitor British imperial initiatives inside SEAC while maintaining her cover as a file clerk.

In March 1944, Julia ships out aboard the troop ship SS Mariposa with eight female OSS colleagues, including her close friends Betty MacDonald, a Japan expert at Morale Operations, the OSS propaganda branch, and Jane Foster, a bohemian artist and East Indies specialist. A torpedo narrowly misses their ship during the crossing. The Mariposa is rerouted to Bombay after the Japanese invade Northeast India. In Bombay, a catastrophic harbor explosion kills a young girl near the women's bungalow. Julia donates a gold bar that struck her leg in the blast to relief efforts.

Orders redirect the women to Kandy, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), where SEAC has relocated. Julia settles at OSS Detachment 404, a tea-estate compound, and begins organizing a Registry in a primitive thatched hut. She encounters Paul Child, head of the Map Room, for the first time when he splashes her with mud from his jeep. She finds him rude and arrogant, though she admires his skilled mapwork.

Julia begins liaison work at SEAC headquarters. Mountbatten's aide, Lieutenant James Mack, an Irishman, becomes her guide and romantic interest. Julia overhears officers discussing a sabotage team ambushed in Burma and suspects a security breach within SEAC. She sends her first encrypted report to Donovan. At a party hosted by Pieter von Diest, a Dutch tea exporter, Julia collapses from dengue fever, and Paul catches her before she falls, insisting on driving her to the hospital.

Julia and her commanding officer, Colonel Dick Heppner, devise "Operation Friendship," a counterintelligence trap using fake cables about a bogus arms drop. When the enemy intercepts the decoy, the leak is confirmed within SEAC's Codes and Ciphers unit. Donovan charges Julia with identifying the traitor. Dick pairs Julia with Paul for undercover surveillance, requiring them to pose as a couple, and Julia ends her romance with Mack. She photographs a suspicious meeting between Lieutenant Commander Stephen Warwick of Codes and Ciphers and Olivia Mitford, a nurse in the First Aid Nursing Yeomanry (FANY), a British volunteer corps. Warwick carries a heart-shaped blue box throughout the encounter, leading Julia to infer an espionage exchange. A search of Warwick's quarters uncovers the box containing 5,000 pounds. Warwick confesses that Olivia manipulated him into passing intelligence. A sting operation traces Olivia to von Diest's estate, revealing him as her handler. Both are arrested. Julia is commended, but her cover at SEAC is blown.

Donovan sends Julia to Ramree Island, Burma, to establish a field Registry. Her PT boat is destroyed by a Japanese fighter in the Bay of Bengal, and Julia, the sole survivor, swims to shore on the Arakan mainland. Villagers shelter her and introduce her to Deepak Binoy, a jemadar, or junior officer, in the Indian Army who escaped a Japanese POW death camp. Together they trek through jungle toward Ramree. Deepak reveals critical intelligence: The Japanese are planning a Christmas Day troop convoy across a bridge on the Irrawaddy River. When Japanese soldiers discover their trail, Deepak sacrifices his life to draw the enemy away so Julia can deliver his report. Aided by local villagers and a boy mahout named Ali riding an elephant, Julia reaches an Allied base on Ramree and transmits the intelligence. A Royal Air Force (RAF) airstrike destroys the bridge, preventing the planned attack.

Julia returns to Kandy just before Christmas. She and Paul share passionate kisses under the mistletoe, though Julia is hurt when Paul subsequently kisses Jane the same way. On New Year's Eve, Paul clarifies that his kiss with Julia carried real meaning. In January 1945, Paul and Dick transfer to Kunming, China. Donovan then sends Julia to establish the Registry at OSS Detachment 202, the agency's China base. She and Betty fly "over the Hump," the treacherous 500-mile Himalayan air route, aboard a cargo plane. After a Japanese attack and engine failure, the plane crash-lands on the Yangtze River bank. Nineteen of 20 passengers survive.

In Kunming, Julia reunites with Rosamond "Rosie" Frame, her translator friend from the Mariposa voyage, and navigates the complex China theater, where Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalists, Mao's Communists, and regional warlords compete for power while fighting Japan. Donovan charges her with investigating leaks in the American supply pipeline. Julia and Rosie discover "Thieves Row," a market section where stolen American military goods are openly traded. Paul returns from a dangerous mission to a coastal outpost run by fellow OSS officer Thibaut de Saint Phalle, operating under the Sino-American Cooperative Organization (SACO), the joint U.S.-Chinese intelligence command. When Paul's defense maps vanish from the Map Room, Julia and Paul drive toward a SACO camp to brief Dick, accompanied by their driver, Tung, and translator Lu Mei, the cousin of Sally Lu, a Chinese-American OSS clerk who had taken over Julia's Washington Registry. The car is ambushed: Tung is killed, and Mei is fatally wounded. As Mei dies, Julia discovers the stolen maps inside Mei's blouse, revealing Mei as a Communist agent.

At Wenquan hot springs, Julia declares her love to Paul, and he reciprocates. Julia and Paul follow a diverted supply convoy to a cave complex and witness an organized smuggling operation. Tai Li, Chiang's security chief, reveals that his own translator partnered with American supply sergeant Sam Booker to run the ring. Booker is court-martialed. The intelligence leads Donovan to broker an alliance among Chiang's Nationalists, Governor Long Yun's regional forces, and Communist fighters, who together halt the Japanese advance at the strategic crossroads of Kweiyang.

Roosevelt's death in April 1945 devastates Julia and the Allied community. The atomic bombs fall on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August. Emperor Hirohito surrenders on August 15, Julia's 33rd birthday. Paul presents her with a love sonnet and tells her the next chapter of their lives is beginning. As their OSS colleagues scatter, Julia closes down the Kunming Registry. Paul proposes they drive home together over the Burma Road, the wartime supply route linking China and Burma. Julia agrees, and they set off together.