Book Rec: The Rose Code
- jlentz24
- Jun 20
- 3 min read
After reading The Alice Network by Kate Quinn, I came across her 2021 release - The Rose Code in an English bookstore in Barcelona. I sat down in the shop and immediately got pulled into the story about three women who hated each other. I had to know more. Drawn into the secret world of Enigma codebreakers at Bletchley Park during WWII, this novel brings together three unlikely friends as they work to undercover a traitor and fight all odds to stop Nazi Germany.
Book Jacket for The Rose Code
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....
Discussion Guide for The Rose Code
The strain of secrecy at Bletchley Park created it owns wartime pressures. How does the stress of lying and compartmentalizing impact the narrative? Would you have been able to keep such a secret?
The codebreaking process has many stages -- cryptoanalysis, machine decoding, translation, filing and registration. Do you think you could have been a codebreaker? If you were recruited, which department would you have been assigned?
Osla struggles with trying to break from societal stereotypes as a silly debutant. How does she work inside these stereotypes to get what she wants? Do you think ideas have changed in modern times? What are women still struggling with today?
Which girl do you relate to the most -- Osla, Mab or Beth?
After the loss and pain Mab experienced, do you agree with her response to her friends? Could you have forgiven Osla and Beth?
If you liked The Rose Code, you should read Code Girls next.
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