First of all, I was gifted a copy of this book to read via netgalley, and this post may contain affiliate links if I get around to it.
Book Summary.
Windyedge Airfield, Scotland. World War II.
Louisa Adair, newly orphaned and shunned for her mixed-race heritage, has come here to the edge of the world to look after an old lady with a dark past. Jamie Beaufort-Stuart is a flight lieutenant whose squadron is posted to the airfield over winter. Ellen McEwan is a young woman held hostage by the German pilot who lands at Windyedge one wild stormy night carrying a terrible secret.
Three young people desperate to make a difference in a war that has decimated their families, friends and country. When the means to change the course of history falls into their hands, how will they use it? And when the enemy comes looking for them, who will have the courage to strike back?
A thrilling story of wartime secrets, international intrigue and wild courage from the award-winning author of Code Name Verity, with three young heroes you’ll never forget.
Next, a confession.
I haven’t finished the book yet. You’d think, what with furlough, I’d have a lot more time to read. Theoretically I do, what with the whole not going out to work thing, but first of all I couldn’t read because I had problems with my eye sight, and I had to get new glasses (varifocals, that was a shock to the system I can tell you) and now that I’ve got that sorted, I’m still having problems with focus.
I’m not the only one, right? Other people are completely scattered by everything going on around us?
I love Elizabeth Wein though, and I know when I get my head together I’ll whip through this and it will be wonderful.
I have started. I’ve had the scene set, starting in November 1940, on an air field. The book starts with death, but it’s set in a war, and while the descriptions are graphic, they are somehow matter of fact, a part of life, as death was, disturbingly. The first character, Jamie, is a pilot, and that wasn’t a profession with a long life span.
Louisa is 15 and orphaned by the war. She’s half Jamaican, but stranded in the UK with no way back to the rest of her family.
Young people, war, big decisions, all the things that Elizabeth Wein weaves together incredibly well. If you haven’t read Code Name Verity, you are missing an absolute treat, and you should. But you can read The Enigma Game first.
Information about the Book
Title: The Enigma Game
Author: Elizabeth Wein
Genre: YA Historical
Publication Date: 14th May 2020
Page Count: 424
Publisher: Bloomsbury
Amazon Affiliate Link: The Enigma Game
Author Information
Elizabeth Wein is a church bell ringer, a recreational pilot, and the owner of about a thousand maps. She grew up in England, Jamaica, and Pennsylvania, and has lived in Scotland since 2000, where she learned to fly at the Scottish Aero Club. She is best known for her historical fiction about young women as aviators in World War II, including Code Name Verity (2012), which became a New York Times bestseller and was
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