It’s 1915, and Emma Shuster has far too much on her mind to entertain notions of romance.Saboteurs are doing their best to keep the United States out of the Great War. Bridges and factories are being bombed, and ships are being sunk. When Emma’s code-breaker father is found murdered and his secret encryption project left unfinished, the navy offers Emma a civilian position cracking intercepted … intercepted ciphers sent by foreign powers.
With enemies lurking at every turn, can she trust even those closest to her? Is romance the true motive behind her two suitors’ advances, or could one—or both of them—have traitorous intentions?
Emma races to discover the nefarious plans of her country’s foes and unmask their leader before more people are killed. And yet, her greatest challenge may be deciphering the cryptic messages sent by her heart.
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This exciting novel includes subjects I enjoy reading about: puzzles, such as codes and ciphers, mystery, and active faith in the Lord. It is written with excellence, capturing my attention from the beginning and holding it throughout. The author is adept at demonstrating her characters, their faith, romance, and a challenging mystery.
Emma is the daughter of Professor Alfred Shuster, a mathematics professor at a college in Maine. Since graduating from Smith, she lives with her father and helps him with a project he is working on for a bank, a system of encryption that will help them make long distance telegraph transactions without risk of being intercepted and transcribed. She has her father’s talent with mathematics and understanding complex ciphers.
When going to her father’s office at college, Emma meets John Patterson. He is a Navy lieutenant assigned to the Signal Corp. He asked for help finding her father’s office, and she led him there, not prepared for the horror to come. Her father was murdered, left on the floor of his office with his papers strewn about. Lieutenant Patterson becomes her helper in the following hours.
Patterson was sent there at the request of his boss, Captain Waller, who had served in the Spanish American War with the professor. They had hoped to attract him to work as a civilian for the Signal Corp in their encryption department, as he was the best Waller had ever known. John had to contact Waller with the bad news about his old friend. He wanted to help her until family could arrive, and for Waller, see if she would share her father’s work.
It is 1915, and the Great War is being fought in Europe. Militaries around the world would give anything to be able to design impenetrable ciphers for use within their ranks and decode messages they intercept. They knew the professor had designed a box to automatically encrypt banking information and hoped it would be useful.
Emma must move out of the home owned by the college and find a job. Her father’s office was tossed again, and someone tried to get into the house. John sees the complex understanding Emma has of her father’s work and ciphers, and offers her a position at the secret, civilian center where cryptologists work in another state. John and Emma are attracted to each other even as someone is looking for Emma, possibly tracking her to where she now lives and works.
What a wonderful novel! I am fascinated by the process of how encryption was done in WWI and WWII. It isn’t a career I could have, being math-challenged, so I enjoy the tasks through novels such as this. The mystery of who murdered Emma’s father and continued to search for her permeates her grief as well as her new position and possible romance with John. He travels to sites they learn about through messages decoded in her group for the country they love. Most important, they are Christians who live out their faith each day. Reading their prayers is an inspiration; their love of country is refreshing. The mystery is a true challenge, with suspects begging to be identified…made especially difficult in a time when those who had immigrated from or still had family in Germany could be under suspicion. I was satisfied with the ending, with all loose ends tied up. I highly recommend it to those who enjoy Christian fiction, mysteries, puzzles, and romance.
From a thankful heart: I won a copy of this from the author’s monthly website contest; a review was not required.