The Rose Code by Kate Quinn

 Just finished listening to The Rose Code in an audio book. It is a historical fiction with a mystery threaded throughout the story.

About: 

"The New York Times and USA Today bestselling 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.

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.

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."

Such an intriguing story! It is a fairly long book. Threaded into the story of the women's work at Bletchely Park, is the story of Beth who has been committed to an asylum. She has smuggled out a message to Osla and Mab in a final act of desperation before something even worse happens to her. 

The ending was incredibly tense and nerve wracking for the reader! Good historical fiction and a mystery. I like all of the tie ins with "real people".  Prince Phillip really did have a girlfriend named Osla who worked at Bletchley Park (different last name). Turing is brought in at one point. Mab and Beth are based on/compilations of women who also served as code breakers. The summary at the end of the audio book gave some information on the current status of Bletchley, specifically that Kate Middleton had reopened it in 2014 and it is now open for tours. Her grandmother worked at Bletchley.

It is hard to find an article that isn't mostly focused on what the Duchess of Cambridge wore, but this gives a bit of information about her grandmother. 

https://www.eonline.com/news/552440/kate-middleton-s-grandmother-was-gorgeous-too-worked-at-britain-s-spy-school-during-wwii-see-the-pic

My thought as I finished it was "this should be a 3 part t.v. series and guess what? They are working on it.

I highly recommend this book.