Osla Kendall is a Canadian debutante in London who meets Prince Philip of Greece just before the start of WWII. However, Osla wants to be more than a silly society girl and so is called up to work at Bletchley Park. On the train, she meets Mab who has also received a note to work at Bletchley. Once there, they are lodged at the Finch family home, where they get to know Beth, the shy daughter of the house. The three women become inseparable during their time as code breakers at Bletchley Park, until a quarrel drives them apart. Several years after the war, Osla and Mab receive a secret note from Beth who needs their help to expose a traitor.
I read a Kate Quinn book set during WWII before (The Alice network), but The rose code is even better. The history behind Bletchley Park and the ins and outs of how German codes were deciphered was new to me, but Quinn effortlessly incorporates that into the story.
At the heart of the story are three women who are very diverse and yet become friends. They each have their own concerns and secrets, but are connected by their time in BP. Unfortunately, that goes wrong at some point. And then it turns out there was a traitor among them.
The book is divided into chapters from during the war, interspersed with short sections in 1947, a few days before Princess Elisabeth’s marriage to Prince Philip. The storyline surrounding Philip may not have been my favourite part of the book, but it didn’t really bother me either. Both Beth and Osla are based on people who really existed, Mab’s story is fictional.
I also liked that reading books and discussing them during the Mad Hatter Tea Parties was a big enough part of the story. Almost all of the characters loved reading, that’s not always the case in most stories :).
The nice thing about this novel is that it offers a whole new perspective on WWII and on a piece of history that is not so well-known. Besides this, the fictional story is well crafted. I really enjoyed reading this and I’ll definitely pick up more books from Kate Quinn.
What’s your favourite non-typical WOII novel?
In Another Era 