‘The Rose Code’ by Kate Quinn is a fascinating historical fiction book that follows three very different women starting in 1940.
It’s 1940, when three women answer the call to a mysterious country Estate, Bletchley Park. A place where the best minds train to break German military codes. We meet the debutante Osla, a girl that has it all, wealth, beauty and even roses from Prince Philip of Greece…which she burns! To make a point that she is more than a society girl! Then puts her fluent German into excellent use to help translate decoded enemy secrets. Mab, a product of East End London poverty works the code-breaking machines while she hides old wounds and searches for a husband who will be socially advantageous for her.
Then there is shy Beth a local girl that hides her brilliance for cracking puzzles rather well. The story propels to 1947 and the country is gripped with the Royal wedding fever of Princess Elizabeth to Prince Philip of Greece. The three women who have; in the past, suffered a betrayal that broke their friendship and left one confine to an asylum, are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter they have to crack one more puzzle as a team …but can they?
I am a history nerd and this story had me from the cover! I loved all three women, every one of them were as different as you could think of and none perfect so as real as you get. The fact they also gave us access to the different areas that Bletchley Park had was of course fascinating for me.
This sort of historical fiction always intrigues me, the jobs women did and no-one got credit for it at the time it was just ‘they did their bit for the war’. The brilliance of all three women shines through and the differences we see when they are at work. For example, Beth, a shy retiring woman who prefers to stay in the shadows comes alive cracking code what a woman. I really was happy to see Alan Turing and Churchill turn up as well.
I was so into this story and knowing how important and unique the work was at Bletchley during that time I was as frustrated as they were if a code wasn’t for cracking. Then when we got to 1947 and the women get back together to crack a code that will tell them who the traitor is from their years at Bletchley I was as tense as anything willing them on to crack one more!
A brilliant story that has been written so well by Kate Quinn. The amount of research that has gone into this story is very present and her depiction of working in the most important building of the second world war is spot on I would say.
Massive thanks to Anne Cater for asking me on this book tour, Harper Collins and NetGalley for my copy of the book.
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