Alan Turing was an English mathematician who worked at Bletchley Park in England, The Government Code and Cypher School (GC&CS). This school found ways to decipher military code/messages from Nazi Germany. He created the world’s first computer during WWII, which was called the Bombe. The Bombe machine was created to break Enigma more efficiently and quicker. Enigma is a cipher device; it was used for military communication during WWII, which had almost 159 quintillion different settings and were changed everyday. Turing’s machine not only led to the creation of modern-day computers, but also was a vital part of the Allies winning WWII. The Rose Code by Kate Quinn is an amazing historical fiction book about Bletchley in England during WWII and I think that every historical fiction lover should read this book. It is an amazing book because of the three main characters and their relationship, the time jumps that the author beautifully writes, and the traitor. The main characters in this book are three amazingly talented women in the 1940s and really steal the show of this book. 

The main characters are three girls with a really unique dynamic; their names are Osla Kendall, Mab Churt, and Beth Finch. They all work at Bletchley Park, which is known as BP to the workers. In the beginning of the book they all meet at BP and become friends/roommates during the war. They all work in different huts at Bletchley Park and all do different jobs such as, German Naval Translator, Cryptanalysis, and Bombe Operator. They can’t tell each other what they do in their huts because of the Official Secrets Act, which is an actual act that helped provide protection for state secrets and official information; if someone violates this act they would be punished. Even though the Official Secrets Act was in place it didn’t stop the main characters from trading information, which doesn't end well for them. When they violated the act it ended up leading to one of the girls to be placed in an insane asylum, but it wasn’t all because of their defiance of the Act. 

The past time in this book is during the war at Bletchley Park and is where most of this book takes place, but the author writes a lot of time jumps and character perspective switches after every chapter and sometimes within chapters. The time jumps in this book are to the present; one of them being a time jump to days before the royal wedding between Princess Elizabeth II and Prince Philip. It is a very important time because one of the main characters had a relationship with Prince Philip. The second time jump to the present is to the perspective of one of the main characters who is stuck in the Clockwell Sanitarium, a fictional insane asylum. The identity of the main character stuck in Clockwell is unknown for most of the book, though we do know that a traitor of Bletchley Park put her there and her violation of the Official Secrets Act. While one of the girls is stuck at Clockwell the other two debate about whether or not to help her escape in York, England. The author writes it in a really interesting way, so the reader gets to see all perspectives of the main characters, throughout the war and after. The time jumps are excellently written and easy to follow, which is one reason why I cherish this book. The author writes it in a way one could call it a mystery book because of the traitor and the mystery of their identity. 

It is revealed in an early time jump to Clockwell, that there is a traitor at Bletchley Park. Like in real life, there was a traitor at Bletchley Park that worked in Hut 3 and his name was John Cairncross. He was a Soviet double agent and gave information from BP to the Soviet Union. Cairncross is not mentioned in The Rose Code; instead the author decided to make the spy a fictional character. The identity of the traitor is a mystery to the readers, but the reader does know that the person works at Bletchley Park. This book is written so the reader gets to see the main character and her life in the Clockwell Sanitarium, as well as her life at Bletchley Park. When she is stuck in Clockwell, she is looking back at her past to try to figure out who the BP traitor is, while she is slowly going insane. It is really fun to read about her terrible experience in Clockwell while the reader is just getting to know her because of the time jumps. The Rose Code is an exceptionally written book and the mystery of the traitor really pulls the reader into the book. 

The Rose Code by Kate Quinn is a beautifully written historical fiction book and I would recommend it to all historical and mystery lovers. Quinn beautifully writes all of the characters, especially the three main characters who have a really interesting dynamic. The traitor is also written really well, which keeps the reader guessing who the traitor of Bletchley Park is throughout the book. The time jumps to the present time really ties the whole book together excellently. Even though the fascinating Alan Turing is only briefly mentioned a few times in this book, I still think that it is an amazing historical fiction book because of all of the remarkable people who work at Bletchley Park during WWII represented in it, and of course the traitor.