According to my carefully considered blogging schedule, for the first post of October, I was supposed to feature a recipe post. Unfortunately for me, cooking has taken a backseat and it'll be at least another week before I can even start thinking about blog-worthy recipes. So I've decided to publish a Book review that I had completed around 6 months ago. Let's just say I'm starting October with food for thought 😄

Kate Quinn is the reigning queen of historical fiction. Whether she is writing about World War I France or post-World War II London, ancient Rome or Renaissance Italy, she brings her readers history with an irreverent twist. 

I have previously mentioned on my blog how much I adore historical fiction as a genre of book and cinema. And I am fascinated with stories centered around Women. Give me a well-written story combining the two and the author will gain a fan in me for life! I came across The Rose Code on goodreads and the blurb caught my interest immediately. I am so glad I read it because I can safely say that this book is one among my favourites from 2022 (and it so happens that I've read several brilliant books this year). 

The year is 1940. Britain is bracing for retaliation from the Nazis. Able-bodied men all over the country are enlisting in the British Armed Forces. 

In Bletchley Park (BP for short), an isolated country estate, WWII preparation of a different sort is underway. Here, the best and brightest minds in Britain are brought together to crack German ciphers that could reveal enemy secrets and change the tide of war. The codebreakers of BP are both men and women; a motley crew of nerds and oddballs consisting of Oxford and Cambridge graduates, mathematicians, chess players, crossword solvers and language experts. The widespread belief that the Enigma codes used by the Axis powers were uncrackable was proved wrong at the top-secret decryption facility. 

Osla Kendall, a wealthy and vivacious socialite is fed up of being perceived as a dim-witted debutante. Fluent in German, she is recruited at BP as a translator. On the other hand, self-made Mab Churt, hailing from the underprivileged section of London’s East End is desperately seeking to improve her prospects in life. Mab is initially recruited at BP for her secretarial skills but she eventually progresses to operate and maintain decoding machines. 

While billeting in the  local village cottage of a timid and repressed young spinster named Beth Finch, Osla and Mab discover Beth’s remarkable aptitude for crosswords. Yanking her out of the shadow of her domineering mother, Beth is recommended for recruitment at BP where she gradually blossoms into a star cryptanalyst. Although the three extraordinary young women are starkly different in personality, come from different walks of life and possess different skill sets, they manage to forge a close friendship as the war drags on. Their days turn into years which heave under immense workload, the strain of keeping official secrets and the constant worry of bombing raids over British cities. The combined physical and mental exhaustion takes a heavy toll on them. 

In a dramatic twist, the three friends are driven apart by a terrible secret that irrevocably changes the course of life of one of them. They turn against each other and the friendship dissipates into a cloud of blame, animosity and estrangement. One of them is eventually committed to a mental asylum. 

Against insurmountable odds, the three women have to resurrect their former alliance to expose a mysterious traitor at BP who has committed treason. One who has also betrayed each of them.