The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

 

Library Thing ER

March 9, 2021

William Morrow

Historical fiction, print book, 

656 pages

ISBN: 9780062943477

8/27/21-9/2/21

 

I received a complimentary print copy of this book from William Morrow and Library Thing ER in exchange for an unbiased review.

 

In Autumn 1939, Hilter‘s advances seemed unstoppable and they thought Enigma was unbreakable.

 

The story travels from London, November 1947 back to December 1939. Three very different women meet because of the the war. Mab Churt has dreams of going to school to be a writer. She is forced into the work force at 14 years old as she was the 5th of 6 children that her single mother tried to raise on her own when her father abandons them. Mab works tirelessly to improve her situation by taking secretarial courses to get a better paying job. It isn’t long before Mab receives a curious letter that directs her to go to Bletchley to serve her country.

 

Olsa Kendall, a debutante born in Quebec but raised in London, gets kicked out of her expensive boarding school. She returns home to work with her cousin Sally Norton drilling holes in Durol sheets for aircrafts. Her mother is divorced 3 times and hardly a source of support for Olsa. She finds herself set up to meet Prince Philip, a cadet at Dartmouth related to the king and his uncle Lord Dickie Mountbatten. Olsa also receives the same vague letter instructing her to report to Bletchy Park, which appears to be an asylum. 

 

Olsa and Mab meet on the train ride to Bletchy Park, where they soon realize they were recruited to be code breakers. The government places them as billets in the home of Beth Finch and her controlling dismissive mother. Olsa and Mab live there under very strict rules while working all hours of the day and night at Betchley Park. They are under orders to never disclose the nature of their work to anyone, not even family. 

 

Olsa and Mab discover that Beth is very talented in cryptology and bring her into the secret work at Bletchy Park. This is extremely difficult as Beth has never stood up to her overbearing mother and must lie daily as to the nature of her work. She soon triumphs over the imposed guilt and negative feelings her mother has bestowed upon her over years. She learns that the negative comments from her mother were not true and that she actually is intelligent and capable of important work.

 

Years later when Mab and Olsa have moved on in their lives trying to forget the disaster that befell them at Betchley Park, they receive a mysterious message from someone begging for their help. They realize the message is from Beth and wonder if they can trust the claims of Beth being locked in the clock tower. The women realize that their work has bound them in ways that can never be broken and that they still have one more mission to complete to finally make peace with the past. 

 

 

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