The Rose Code

A Novel

By: Kate Quinn

Narrated by: Saskia Maarleveld

Length: 16 hrs and 2 mins

Publisher's summary

“The hidden history of Bletchley Park has been waiting for a master storyteller like Kate Quinn to bring it to life. The Rose Code effortlessly evokes the frantic, nervy, exuberant world of the Enigma codebreakers through the eyes of three extraordinary women who work in tireless secrecy to defeat the Nazis. Quinn’s meticulous research and impeccable characterization shine through this gripping and beautifully executed novel.” (Beatriz Williams, New York Times best-selling author of Her Last Flight)

The New York Times and USA Today best-selling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.

The year 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.

The year 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....

©2021 Kate Quinn (P)2021 HarperCollins Publishers

A Great Book to Get Lost In

First of all the narrator is fantastic! The story was engaging the whole way through. It took me through all the emotions!

Triumph

It's a mystery. It's a love story. It's full of detail about Britain's breaking of the Enigma code. I loved it.

Long and Girly but worth the time!

There is not much to say other than Amazing! It is that rare fiction that leaves you wondering if it isn't real disguised as art.
The story follows the life of three women, girls really, thrown together by war and fate, through the war and after. One loses a child and husband to German bombing, another loses the love of her life to the British Crown, and the third her post war life to an insane asylum. But it takes the three former code breakers and their various Bletchley Park code breaker friends to bring down the WWII traitor that put their friend in the asylum to keep her quiet.
The book is slow and plodding (from a guy's point of view, sorry - we don't do "feelings" very much) with colorful and deep, deep, descriptions of the women's loves and feelings. Did I mention that the story dives DEEP into their "feelings"?
But somehow that doesn't overshadow (for me) the mystery of who the traitor is. It just takes 2/3 of the book to understand that there is a traitor.
All said, and with no knock on what I so impoliticly refer to as a "Girly book", this is so well done, so completely engaging and real, that even I, the guy that invented knuckle dragging, can't find any reason not to love it.

Formula Soap Opera

Excellent narration! The deathly drama of WWII and the extreme efforts of the dedicated citizens of Britain was diluted with every current popular soap opera twist imaginable. I was going to say the only emotional manipulation that was left out was cancer but on second thought, there was even a cancer death too.

Wonderful

If you like historical fiction and fierce women, definitely check this one out! So many of the heroes of Bletchley Park declined to discuss their work even when it was declassified. There’s much I wish I could learn about some real people depicted here:

Excellent story

Great story and excellent narrator! Cool part of WW2 history that I wasn’t very familiar with.

A great historical read

Fantastic story - highly recommend! Was in the middle of this book when the news broke of Prince Phillip’s passing... twas a bit odd to be reading this at such a time.

Interesting

Normally I'm not crazy about historical fiction, but I could not stop listening. Great friendships, loyalty, romance, feminism, wartime. It's all there.

Absolutely wonderful!

Loved everything about this book; the storyline, the characters, the plot, the narration. Amazing! Quinn does it again!

Great Book

I loved this book. I didn't want it to end. I'll probably read it again in a few months.