I saw the blurb for this one and decided I needed something a bit different to break up my usual diet of SFF, so requested it. I’m so very glad I was approved for this interesting read…
BLURB: 1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart. 1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter…
I’ve truncated the blurb here, as afterwards I think it gets far too chatty and it’s better if you read the next plot twist in the book.
REVIEW: Three young women, all remarkable in completely differing ways and from entirely different backgrounds, are brought together in the pressure cooker that is Bletchley Park during World War II. I recall the furore caused when news of what went on at Bletchley Park first leaked out for general consumption, back in 1974. Those involved were sworn to absolute secrecy and they abided by it, from the typists and secretarial support through to the code breakers. We are given a ringside seat to the activities of Bletchley through the perspective of three women – Osla, Mab and Beth. For the other remarkable aspect of Bletchley Park is that women were permitted to work alongside men. Admittedly, they didn’t get the same pay – but given that they proved to be every bit as brilliant and dedicated as the men, they very quickly were established within the oddball community that was Bletchley.
This gripping story, much of it based upon the lives of actual people who worked at Bletchley, charts the highs and lows of working in such a pressured environment, where everyone was scaldingly aware that their success in breaking crucial codes affected the course of the war. We get to see how working in conditions of absolute secrecy created extra twists of pressure – men working eighteen-hour shifts under difficult conditions, only to be spat at in the street for not being in uniform, or ostracised by family members for not fighting for King and Country, for instance. Even if they resigned, they were still forbidden to join the Armed Forces, just in case they were captured and gave up information about Bletchley.
Quinn weaves a story of love, loss and heartbreak in amongst the febrile atmosphere of the war, where the friendship between the three young women is smashed apart. I thought the dual timelines worked very well and that the romance between Osla and the dashing Prince Philip was particularly deftly handled – anyone who has seen pictures of him as a young man knows that he was every bit as handsome as Quinn describes him.
The gripping climax of this story made it difficult to put down and I really enjoyed the exciting denouement. I highly recommend that you also read the Appendix where Quinn describes how she wove details of actual people within her story and also provides a potted history of Bletchley House, itself. Highly recommended for fans of historical adventures set during WWII. While I obtained an arc of The Rose Code from the publishers via Netgalley, the opinions I have expressed are unbiased and my own.
9/10
Brainfluff 