Publisher: 3rd March 2021 by HarperCollins Australia
Pages: 620 pages
How I Read It: ARC book
Genre: historical fiction, world war II
My Rating: 5 cups
Synopsis:
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
“It’s the most important commodity of all, isn’t it?” “What, codes?” “What the codes protect: information. Because it doesn’t matter if you’re fighting a war with swords, with bombers, or with sticks and stones - weapons are no good unless you know when and where to aim them.”
Kate Quinn is an undisputed master storyteller of historical fiction. Her latest offering, The Rose Code, is right up there with her previous reads of The Huntress and The Alice Network. Her research and attention to detail is phenomenal. Being a time period many authors of historical fiction favour, readers look to be enticed to familiar events through fresh eyes. This Kate does by the bucket load. With many characters based on actual historical figures and with the focus on female codebreakers, this was bound to be a fascinating read.
With two timelines covered - 1940 during the war and 1947 days before Princess Elizabeth’s royal wedding - this book is jam packed with suspense and intrigue that will lead you on an emotional ride. This is a tale rich in detail of the codebreakers who worked at Bletchley Park as told by three women who became firm friends. Yet it is also a story of each woman’s personal struggles and growth during this demanding period of history. To then skip forward to 1947 and a mystery that brings them back together on the eve of a royal wedding ... well, it is ‘edge of your seat’ stuff. There will be love and loyalties to cheer for, there will be fear and fallouts to tear up for. Towards the end the pace quickens and your reluctance to put the book down heightens as you become so immersed in discovering how things went so horribly wrong.
This is an incredibly complex and multilayered story that you will lose yourself in. Can the bonds of not just female friendship and understanding but also a fight for justice be enough to lay old grievances down in order to face a new enemy? This is, without doubt, historical fiction at its finest. Kate is an author you read without knowing any other details other than she is the author - you just know it will be that good! Strap yourself in, put the kettle on for your 600+ page immersion into the mystery that surrounds The Rose Code.
‘Where were all those women now? How many men who had fought in the war now sat reading their morning newspapers without realizing the woman sitting across the jam-pots from them had fought, too? Maybe the ladies of BP hadn’t faced bullets or bombs, but they'd fought - oh, yes, they’d fought. And now they were labeled simply housewives, or schoolteachers, or silly debs, and they probably bit their tongues and hid their wounds ...’
This review is based on a complimentary copy from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. The quoted material may have changed in the final release.
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