In the summer of 1940, just as the World War II blitz is about to begin, Jacob Novis, 19, and his sister Lizzie, 14, are living in London in “The Bletchley Riddle”
(Viking 2024) by two literary masters, Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin. Both teens love puzzles and riddles and there are many to solve in this page-turning historical fiction.
The first of two narrators, Jacob, a brainy mathematics student, has been recruited by the British code-breaking center, tasked with breaking the Nazi Enigma cipher.
We first see the indomitable Lizzie, setting out to her wealthy grandmother’s house in Cleveland, Ohio, where she’ll be safe. But she slips her chaperone, Mr. Fleetwood, and finds her way to Bletchley Park, north of London, and to her brother Jacob. Once Lizzie arrives at the mysterious Bletchley Park, she is sworn to secrecy by a high-ranking government official—but secrecy of what? She doesn’t even know what Jacob is doing.
Lizzie aims to solve the mystery of her missing mother, an American widow, once married to a British code-breaker of WWI, who had been working at London’s American Embassy. Their mum disappeared during a German bombing raid, while helping to disassemble the American Embassy in Poland. The children are told their mother, Willa, was killed. Jacob believes it. The Germans are closing in on Britain and tension is rising. Some members of the British government suspect that Willa was an enemy spy. Lizzie feels that Mum is alive and of course could never be an enemy spy.
Against rules and orders, Lizzie, visits their London flat. The descriptions of war-torn London are vivid. “Military lorries rumble through the streets in a fog of exhaust.” First-aid supplies and water hoses are poised at the ready. “Fish-like blimps, each the size of a bus” hover above the city. Shops and houses are boarded up, sandbags lean against doors all along the streets of London. “Fire buckets are poised at the ready.” Newsboys are hawking newspapers. Directions to the nearest bomb shelters abound, but street signs are missing or disguised to deter the enemy if he should arrive on foot. London is poised to hide in the dark.
And Lizzie is in the city, in part, to get some clothes and boots from their flat. While searching the wardrobe, she stumbles across loose boards and finds a small notebook belonging to their mother. Certainly, there are clues in it. Tension mounts, both in the story and in London.
Real life figures are sprinkled throughout. The real mastermind, Alan Turing, who devised techniques to help break the German ciphers. He’s also known to have converted his wages into silver bars and buried them to uncover after the war. Dilly Knox is in Cottage Three making breakthroughs with the Polish bomba system. Lizzie has entry to the American Embassy, due to her parents’ connections, and there she finds Ambassador Joseph Kennedy.
For a fascinated reader, this book could be paired with Candace Fleming’s remarkable nonfiction The Enigma Girls, (reviewed June 16). What a fascinating era of history!
Patricia Hruby Powell is the author of the award-winning books: Josephine; Lift As You Climb; Loving vs Virginia; and Struttin’ With Some Barbecue all signed and for sale at Jane Addams bookstore. Her forthcoming books are about women’s suffrage, Martha Graham, and Ella Fitzgerald, as well as waterfowl. talesforallages.com
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