Kate Quinn makes the urgency of World War II code breaking come alive through the stories of three young women and their interconnected destinies in The Rose Code.
The Rose Code is a wonderfully spun historical fiction story of three very different women who answer the wartime call to England's top-secret Bletchley Park in order to break the military codes of the Axis powers.
The book jumps between 1940, the beginning of the women's forays into their secret duties and responsibilities, and 1947, as the royal wedding of Prince Philip (the former beau of one of our Bletchley ladies) and Princess Elizabeth approaches--a period when one of the Bletchley sisterhood is tucked away in an asylum following a terrible betrayal.
I love a World War II story about strong women making a difference, but I admit that I was curious about how even a historical fiction storytelling master like Kate Quinn could craft compelling storytelling around the potential tedium at the heart of code breaking.
Quinn offers plenty of interpersonal conflict, romance, suspected double-crossing, and details of life within both timelines, and in her hands, the descriptions of code-breaking mechanisms and the detailed, complicated, elusive process of figuring out messages were captivating.
I listened to the audiobook version of The Rose Code, and Saskia Maarleveld was a wonderful narrator.
Do you have any Bossy thoughts about this book?
Kate Quinn is a must-read author for me, and I loved The Alice Network and The Huntress. She also has a new book out, The Diamond Eye.
For more about Kate Quinn’s The Huntress (and five other historical fiction books I loved), check out the Greedy Reading List Six Historical Fiction Books I Loved in the Past Year.
Or check out the books I listed on the Greedy Reading Lists Six Books about Brave Female Spies, Six Great Stories about Brave Women During World War II, and Six Historical Fiction Mysteries to Intrigue You.