It’s such a pleasure today – as always – to be joining Bookouture‘s Books-on-tour and sharing my review of the latest book from Anna Stuart, Code Name Elodie, her second book about the Bletchley Park girls. Published on 29th March, it’s now available via Amazon for kindle and in paperback, and also as an audiobook. My thanks to Bookouture for inviting me to join the tour and for my advance reading e-copy (provided via netgalley), and to Sarah Hardy for her ongoing support.
I did mention the other week that I was falling out of love a little with books with a wartime setting – but there are always exceptions, and Anna Stuart is an author I’ll always want to read. Just this once, I won’t run through her entire pre-Bookouture back catalogue – well, other than a quick mention for the quite wonderful Bonnie and Stan (review here) and Four Minutes to Save a Life (review here). But I’ve very much enjoyed the direction her writing has taken since her move to Bookouture – the compelling The Berlin Zookeeper (review here), the totally engrossing The Secret Diary (you’ll find my review here), A Letter from Pearl Harbor (loved that one too – review here), and the desperately moving The Midwife of Auschwitz (and another review – you’ll find it here).
I missed the first book in this series, The Bletchley Girls – on holiday, I think, and you’ll know how impossible I always find it to catch up – but I’m always fascinated to read anything involving Bletchley Park (really must sort out a visit this year – it’s been on my list for far too long…), so I was particularly looking forward to her latest…
1943, Bletchley Park: In the dark of night, my heart is pumping with adrenalin as I wait for news of the secret agent operating under the code name Elodie. She has a dangerous part to play in the Normandy landings and so many lives are at stake. But I couldn’t bear to lose her…
Inspired by the brave women of Bletchley Park, this is a totally gripping World War Two novel of friendship, heartbreak and hope. Perfect for fans of The Rose Code, The Alice Network and The Nightingale.
Valerie Rousseau is burning with determination to help free her beloved France from the Nazi regime. Working at the mysterious Bletchley Park, she strikes up an unexpected bond with smart, fiercely loyal Fran Morgan as they spend long days together with their heads bent over maps of France in preparation for the Allied invasion.
Their friendship grows increasingly important as they distract themselves from the dark days of war with afternoons skating across the icy pond at the heart of Bletchley Park and evenings talking late into the night. But Valerie’s wartime role is shrouded in secrecy and there are things that she can’t even tell Fran.
When Valerie volunteers for a dangerous mission linked to the D-Day landings in Normandy, Fran is devastated. Valerie has knowingly put her life on the line and Fran is terrified that she will never see her again.
Soon, Fran hears about the bravery of the agent operating under the code name Elodie. She’s certain it’s Valerie and she knows the work she is doing in her little office, overlooking the green fields of England, could be the difference between life and death for this secret agent…
Can both women secure victory for their country? Or will the fight for freedom cost them their love – and their lives?
What a wonderful piece of writing – an extraordinarily detailed insider view of wartime activities in the run-up to the D-Day landings (my goodness, the research…), wrapped around a compelling story of female friendship, both gripping and moving, as their separate lives take a number of directions they could never have expected.
I will admit that I think I might have engaged with the book rather better at the start had I read the first in the series (although there’s enough catching up to put the individual stories in context), and the characters, at first, were just a little blurred as I sorted out their relationships and became increasingly involved in their lives. As the D-Day landings draw closer, Fran finds herself in a key role at Bletchley, pursuing her dream of becoming a journalist whenever the opportunity arises. Her French girlfriend Valerie becomes increasingly involved in the activities of the Free French, and her passion for her country has consequences for their relationship and sees her making decisions that take her into considerable danger.
Steffie’s journey is fascinating too, if tragic and distressing on a personal level – involved with the secret world of the Twenty Committee and their various activities focused on deceiving the enemy on a number of fronts. I particularly enjoyed some of the detail the author draws into the story, especially the ingenuity of Operation Mincemeat – and was fascinated by Fran’s involvement in collecting photos and postcards to inform the production of booklets to be carried by the invading forces to show them the lie of the land. And then there’s Ailsa, with a significant secret of her own, overcoming the prejudice about a meaningful wartime role for married women and convincing the authorities to allow her to travel to Ceylon – where she can use her particular skill set and rejoin her husband Ned.
Their individual stories are wonderfully told – exceptionally involving, sometimes emotional – but this is also the story of strong female friendship, and of the bravery of a group of women showing immense fortitude while showing how very capable they can be. The social landscape is particularly well drawn – the ridiculous rules preventing women from fulfilling their potential and taking up their rightful roles, the misogynistic attitudes of those in charge, their constant struggle to prove their worth.
If I do have one criticism – and with apologies – I wasn’t entirely convinced that the book’s title was the right one. The story of Elodie – although edge-of-the-seat and very well told – only comes to the fore later in the book, and I felt was always subsidiary to the ongoing struggles of Fran, Steffie and Ailsa. But perhaps that’s just me – and it certainly drove home the message that “love is too painful to indulge in during wartime”, but also endorsed the fact that it’s the one key thing that keeps everyone going. Emotionally, the author just gets everything absolutely right – there are certainly tears along the way, but the conclusion of all the individual stories is heartwarming, satisfying, and particularly uplifting.
This really was an excellent read, and one I really enjoyed on so many levels – and a book I’d thoroughly recommend to others.
About the author
Anna Stuart lives in Derbyshire with her campervan-mad husband, two hungry teenagers and a slightly loopy dog. She was hooked on books from the moment she first opened one in her cot, so is thrilled to now have several of her own to her name. Having studied English literature at Cambridge University, she took an enjoyable temporary trip into the ‘real world’ as a factory planner, before returning to her first love and becoming an author. History has also always fascinated her. Living in an old house with a stone fireplace, she often wonders who sat around it before her and is intrigued by how actively the past is woven into the present, something she likes to explore in her novels.
Anna loves the way that writing lets her ‘try on’ so many different lives, but her favourite part of the job is undoubtedly hearing from readers. You can reach her on Facebook or Twitter, and she also has a website. Sign up to be the first to hear about her new releases here.
I shall look this up as I am a fan of WW2 stories like this.