#53: Kate Quinn, The Rose Code

[kareila]

Predictably, my book club chose to read yet another story set during World War II, but at least this one kept Nazi Germany at arm's length. In fact, I quite enjoyed this book. It takes the facts compiled in The Secret Life of Bletchley Park by Sinclair McKay (also published under the alternate title The Secret Lives of Codebreakers, just to muddle things further) and adapts it into a riveting story of three women who were brought together by the Bletchley Park war effort. (In my opinion, McKay's dual-titled book was badly in need of such an adaptation; it reads like an unfiltered pile of research notes.) I also much preferred this story to that of the film The Imitation Game, the only other similar narrative to which I had been previously exposed, although this story takes some additional liberties with historical facts.

Osla Kendall was based on a real person named Osla Benning, but her name was changed here to emphasize that the facts of her life were being adjusted slightly to serve the author's narrative. The other two main characters, Mab and Beth, are composites based on various other women's stories. The primary male characters (Giles Talbot, Harry Zarb, and Francis Gray) are also composites; the Author's Note appendix has more details. I believe that all of the other supporting characters who worked at BP were real people, most notably Dilly Knox, the head of Beth's section and her codebreaking mentor. Alan Turing and his close friend Joan Clarke are occasionally mentioned, but kept intentionally in the background. And of course, Osla's long-distance relationship with Prince Philip features prominently; reading his scenes so soon after his obituaries were posted was especially poignant.

Content warnings for emotional abuse, sudden violent death, attempted rape, and harsh treatment of mental patients.