Publisher: William Morrow / Harper Audio
Published: March 9, 2021
Source: Print – ARC Paperback via Publisher / Audio – via library
Summary:
The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.
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–the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger–and their true enemy–closer…
My thoughts:
This is the third book I’ve read by Kate Quinn and I fall in love with her writing more and more each time. Her books might be on the long side, but I find myself completely captivated and engaged throughout. And this one was a pick for one of my online book clubs and I loved not only discussing the book with everyone, but we also had the opportunity to chat with the author!
I love the way Kate Quinn is able to blend fact and fiction to tell this story about the female codebreakers at Bletchley Park during WWII. I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t know much about these women and their role during this time but I loved that she helped bring their story to light. I also loved that this story was told using a dual narrative and how the story moved back and forth in time from 1940 to 1947 right before Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip’s wedding. I loved that we learn a little bit about the woman that Prince Phillip dated prior to his wedding and what she was involved in…who knew he was dating such an important woman!
I fell in love with the three woman that Quinn uses to tell this story. Olsa, Mab, and Beth were all so well developed and richly drawn that I felt like I really knew them by the end of the story. At different times throughout the book, I was drawn to one more than the others, but in the end, I really did love them all.
I loved that this is more of a historical mystery than just pure historical fiction. I really enjoy this subgenre and this propels the book along, wondering what has driven these three women apart and who the traitor was. This book really kept me guessing all the way through and I cannot recommend it enough. If you love WWII stories, stories about women’s role during that time or just really good historical fiction / historical mysteries, then I strongly recommend picking this one up!
Audio thoughts:
Even though I had a print copy of this book, when I saw that Saskia Maarleveld was narrating this one, I had to listen to it. She is one of my favorite audiobook narrators and has narrated Kate Quinn’s last two books. Saskia just gets Kate’s books and is able to make her stories come alive. She was able to give each of the three main characters unique personalities and I never once had trouble figuring out who was who. Even though this was a rather long audio book, I never once felt it dragged and her pacing and intonation was spot on. This was a great book to listen to on audio and I thoroughly enjoyed it.
