Book info

• Title Enigma
• Author Robert Harris
• Year 1995
• Genre Historical

March 1943, the war hangs in the balance, and at Bletchley Park Tom Jericho, a brilliant young codebreaker, is facing a double nightmare. The Germans have unaccountably changed their U-boat Enigma code, threatening a massive Allied defeat. And as suspicion grows that there may be a spy inside Bletchley, Jericho's girlfriend, the beautiful and mysterious Claire Romilly, suddenly disappears.

Thoughts

Tom Jericho is a brilliant cryptologist, successful in cracking the German’s hardest code Shark. He’s suffering from nervous exhaustion and recuperating in the country but when the code is changed and his girlfriend disappears, he must return to Hut 8 to continue his work, re-crack the code and discover the mystery that surrounds Claire.

He was an interesting character, but the 1940s is not a period I know very much about, and it’s hard to know what the people were or should have been like then. The descriptions weren’t that fulfilling but there were a lot of different characters involved. It’s really a bonus that there were so many without managing to be confusing.

It’s very good, there were some odd moments where the tenses got a bit muddled but mostly it was very readable. I’m not sure I would rush to read it again or recommend it onwards.

Rating: 3 / 5