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The Code
London, 1941, and Roger Mathews, a special attache with the U.S. is teamed up with British captain Clive Westmore to execute a secret plan to secure the final key to solving the Nazi’s secret codes from within occupied France. Complicating matters, the two are instantly attracted to each other, beginning a romantic involvement whose tender alliance can only make more intricate their already convoluted mission.
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First published May 1, 2010
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
May 3, 2023
While this story had some very interesting elements and I liked the majority of the historical aspects, it was badly let down by amateur writing. In addition, the romance was very lackluster, to the point where I would be inclined to classify this as historical fiction rather than a historical romance.
To give credit where it’s due, I think the author did a really good job creating an interesting story about a topic that very few other MM WW2 historical romance writers have thought of tackling: the role of code cracking during the war. I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about this topic and I had never heard of the Enigma machine before and I also knew nothing about Alan Turing except that he was gay. I worried that the book would either be boring or the technical aspects would fly over my head, but the author surprised me by not taking either approach. Instead, he provided a simple and clear explanation regarding what the Enigma machine was and why it was important and he provided enough background information that I easily understood why the MCs mission to retrieve a stolen part of an Enigma machine from the French Resistance was of very high importance. The actual mission starts out being straight forward and kind of boring, but the author pulled off some very interesting plot twists (the first being at 37%) that changed aspects of the mission and added a lot of tension and suspense into things. I really enjoyed the mission itself and how Clive went about getting his hands on that simple little piece of machinery that was going to change the direction of the war.
I also found it very cool that the author decided to make Alan Turing an important and recurring character throughout the story because you can’t write a story about the Enigma machine without talking about Alan Turing. Please note that the rest of this paragraph was written on the assumption that the author has done his research and had portrayed Alan as realistically as possible in the story. If he didn’t, then I wouldn’t know but that’s the assumption I’m choosing to go with. Not knowing anything about Alan meant that I was very glad that the author had included a brief bio about him at the start of the story. The man was a genius and if his depiction in this story was realistic, then he was also a brave and kind man who used his intelligence to uncover the mysteries of the world and also help win WW2. The fact that his own country treated him so appallingly when they discovered he was gay was horrifying and the fact that this appalling behaviour led to Alan taking his own life in 1952 was equally horrible. After reading the story, I went and looked up more information about him and I’m so glad that the British government has not only publicly apologized for what they did (this happened in 2009) but Alan’s situation has directly led to changes in British law in 2017 regarding the pardoning of men who had been convicted in the past under anti-homosexual laws. His story is incredibly tragic but that’s why I loved his inclusion in the story. While he’s not a main character, he plays a very important role throughout and I loved getting to know Alan and it makes his tragic end even more upsetting.
Unfortunately, those were the only positive parts of the story.
The worst aspect was the writing:
+ A lot of the dialog was terrible.
+ The author would interrupt important conversations or tense scenes by inserting lengthy descriptions about things or dumping information about a character – the information was important but its placement was disruptive.
+ Many important events were conveyed through telling instead of showing.
Worst of all, the author tried to do a multi-timeline approach with this story where he jumped between three different timelines: flashbacks of the MCs pasts, the present during WW2 and the future with one of the MCs being an old man. Unfortunately, this type of narrative structure requires some serious writing skill and the author’s skills were nowhere near where they needed to be in order to pull this off. All of the flashbacks showing the MCs families or past lovers only served to disrupt the present timeline and they were completely pointless. The entire future timeline was also badly done. Throughout the entire book, every chapter starts with a short scene of an old man standing on the English coast and being sad before the narrative jumps back to the WW2 timeline. I have no idea if the author thought that using the old man scenes added mystery or elevated the quality of the story but those scenes were also pointless. Mostly because we never get clear confirmation of which MC the old man is (I assumed it was Roger) and we don’t learn why he’s upset until literally the last sentence in the story. Overall, the story would have been much better if the author had focused on the WW2 plotline because this was where the meat of the story was.
Another thing I disliked was how the romance was handled. The MCs meet at the beginning and within just a few weeks, they decide they’re in love and are basically living together. But to my surprise, this ridiculous instalove actually didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. The author’s approach reminded me of two other MM WW2 historical romances that I had enjoyed: Bailey Queen’s ‘Finding You, Finding Me’ and Osiris Brackhaus’ ‘Lovers In Arms’ . In all three cases, the impact of the main plotline was much more emotional with the MCs being an established couple whose feelings for each other are already set in stone, which is why I didn’t really mind.
But what I did mind was that the ENTIRE ROMANCE aspect (ie the MCs falling in love) was conveyed through telling instead of showing and it was done over the course of a few paragraphs. In addition, once Clive leaves England at the halfway mark to go to France for the mission, the two MCs are separated until nearly the very end of the story. This was a necessity because Roger is American (and the US wasn’t officially part of the war so they couldn’t risk an American being caught in France doing British war business stuff) and he’s also not military. The problem is that neither of these things had to be the way they were. The author could have made Roger be English and make him be part of the military or Roger could have been even been working for the French Resistance. Now THAT would have been interesting. But I get the feeling that the author deliberately made those choices regarding Rogers’ characterization because it was the perfect excuse to have Roger spend lots of time with Alan while Clive is away. As I said before, I really enjoyed having Alan in the story, but his presence took up narrative space that should have been devoted to the romance.
Overall, I did enjoy this story because I learned a lot and the suspense/mission part was well done. It reminded me a lot about ‘Lovers In Arms’ . Both stories involve some very clever and original plotlines, the historical details were very well done and both stories involve multiple timelines. Unfortunately, another similarity is that both stories suffered from bad writing and the romances were underdeveloped. But the romance aspect in The Code was even weaker than in ‘Lovers In Arms’ and the use of those dumb flashbacks annoyed me a lot, which is why it’s getting 2 stars.
To give credit where it’s due, I think the author did a really good job creating an interesting story about a topic that very few other MM WW2 historical romance writers have thought of tackling: the role of code cracking during the war. I went into this book knowing absolutely nothing about this topic and I had never heard of the Enigma machine before and I also knew nothing about Alan Turing except that he was gay. I worried that the book would either be boring or the technical aspects would fly over my head, but the author surprised me by not taking either approach. Instead, he provided a simple and clear explanation regarding what the Enigma machine was and why it was important and he provided enough background information that I easily understood why the MCs mission to retrieve a stolen part of an Enigma machine from the French Resistance was of very high importance. The actual mission starts out being straight forward and kind of boring, but the author pulled off some very interesting plot twists (the first being at 37%) that changed aspects of the mission and added a lot of tension and suspense into things. I really enjoyed the mission itself and how Clive went about getting his hands on that simple little piece of machinery that was going to change the direction of the war.
I also found it very cool that the author decided to make Alan Turing an important and recurring character throughout the story because you can’t write a story about the Enigma machine without talking about Alan Turing. Please note that the rest of this paragraph was written on the assumption that the author has done his research and had portrayed Alan as realistically as possible in the story. If he didn’t, then I wouldn’t know but that’s the assumption I’m choosing to go with. Not knowing anything about Alan meant that I was very glad that the author had included a brief bio about him at the start of the story. The man was a genius and if his depiction in this story was realistic, then he was also a brave and kind man who used his intelligence to uncover the mysteries of the world and also help win WW2. The fact that his own country treated him so appallingly when they discovered he was gay was horrifying and the fact that this appalling behaviour led to Alan taking his own life in 1952 was equally horrible. After reading the story, I went and looked up more information about him and I’m so glad that the British government has not only publicly apologized for what they did (this happened in 2009) but Alan’s situation has directly led to changes in British law in 2017 regarding the pardoning of men who had been convicted in the past under anti-homosexual laws. His story is incredibly tragic but that’s why I loved his inclusion in the story. While he’s not a main character, he plays a very important role throughout and I loved getting to know Alan and it makes his tragic end even more upsetting.
Unfortunately, those were the only positive parts of the story.
The worst aspect was the writing:
+ A lot of the dialog was terrible.
+ The author would interrupt important conversations or tense scenes by inserting lengthy descriptions about things or dumping information about a character – the information was important but its placement was disruptive.
+ Many important events were conveyed through telling instead of showing.
Worst of all, the author tried to do a multi-timeline approach with this story where he jumped between three different timelines: flashbacks of the MCs pasts, the present during WW2 and the future with one of the MCs being an old man. Unfortunately, this type of narrative structure requires some serious writing skill and the author’s skills were nowhere near where they needed to be in order to pull this off. All of the flashbacks showing the MCs families or past lovers only served to disrupt the present timeline and they were completely pointless. The entire future timeline was also badly done. Throughout the entire book, every chapter starts with a short scene of an old man standing on the English coast and being sad before the narrative jumps back to the WW2 timeline. I have no idea if the author thought that using the old man scenes added mystery or elevated the quality of the story but those scenes were also pointless. Mostly because we never get clear confirmation of which MC the old man is (I assumed it was Roger) and we don’t learn why he’s upset until literally the last sentence in the story. Overall, the story would have been much better if the author had focused on the WW2 plotline because this was where the meat of the story was.
Another thing I disliked was how the romance was handled. The MCs meet at the beginning and within just a few weeks, they decide they’re in love and are basically living together. But to my surprise, this ridiculous instalove actually didn’t bother me as much as I thought it would. The author’s approach reminded me of two other MM WW2 historical romances that I had enjoyed: Bailey Queen’s ‘Finding You, Finding Me’ and Osiris Brackhaus’ ‘Lovers In Arms’ . In all three cases, the impact of the main plotline was much more emotional with the MCs being an established couple whose feelings for each other are already set in stone, which is why I didn’t really mind.
But what I did mind was that the ENTIRE ROMANCE aspect (ie the MCs falling in love) was conveyed through telling instead of showing and it was done over the course of a few paragraphs. In addition, once Clive leaves England at the halfway mark to go to France for the mission, the two MCs are separated until nearly the very end of the story. This was a necessity because Roger is American (and the US wasn’t officially part of the war so they couldn’t risk an American being caught in France doing British war business stuff) and he’s also not military. The problem is that neither of these things had to be the way they were. The author could have made Roger be English and make him be part of the military or Roger could have been even been working for the French Resistance. Now THAT would have been interesting. But I get the feeling that the author deliberately made those choices regarding Rogers’ characterization because it was the perfect excuse to have Roger spend lots of time with Alan while Clive is away. As I said before, I really enjoyed having Alan in the story, but his presence took up narrative space that should have been devoted to the romance.
Overall, I did enjoy this story because I learned a lot and the suspense/mission part was well done. It reminded me a lot about ‘Lovers In Arms’ . Both stories involve some very clever and original plotlines, the historical details were very well done and both stories involve multiple timelines. Unfortunately, another similarity is that both stories suffered from bad writing and the romances were underdeveloped. But the romance aspect in The Code was even weaker than in ‘Lovers In Arms’ and the use of those dumb flashbacks annoyed me a lot, which is why it’s getting 2 stars.
June 29, 2012
This story is about one of the most fascinating events of World War Two (fictionalized of course but having at least some basis in reality as far as I understand). I however really did not care for how the relationship between Roger and Clive started. I definitely liked that that sexual scenes were not explicit, that's not my point of contention. I thought that the beginning of the relationship was too much tell and way not enough show. The whole story is Roger's remembering events in the war and him remembering the beginnings feels emotionally remote if that makes sense? It is as if the film is being shown through the additional filter of somebody else's mind? I understand that it is a literary choice the author made, but as a reader I disliked that choice. I think the second part of the story shows perfectly how wonderful it could have been, because when the action/adventure picks up steam, it is as if it is taking place in real time, even though it is also memory (or memory of somebody else telling him some events when he was not there). I also liked Roger and Clive together when they were already in love, they were sweet and gentle with each other, I liked that. The beginning though just felt completely flat for me. I also thought that Roger's constantly remembering his other relationships detracted from the story unnecessarily and I did not see how it advanced the story at all.
I also really liked the writing style.
I also really liked the writing style.
July 1, 2013
This story was poignant and beautifully written. It is a bitter-sweet story. It takes place in the historical setting of breaking the Enigma Code. The setting and the characters stayed true to their era.
The MCs were real and multi-layered. I felt their turmoil and their love for each other. This love was layered over the horror of war and their brave actions. Roger's reaction to the duplicity of their superiors was stark and emotional. Clive's stoicism in the light of this same betrayal shows his bravery and his loyalty to his country. I wish I had more in depth knowledge of the other supporting characters. Did the Admiral know of their relationship? I want to know Pomboi's history.
The use of a true historical figure adds to the situation of Clive and Roger. His true life shows the stress of living in a world that did not accept all loves. At the end of this story I had tears in my eyes. A small book but a big story.
The MCs were real and multi-layered. I felt their turmoil and their love for each other. This love was layered over the horror of war and their brave actions. Roger's reaction to the duplicity of their superiors was stark and emotional. Clive's stoicism in the light of this same betrayal shows his bravery and his loyalty to his country. I wish I had more in depth knowledge of the other supporting characters. Did the Admiral know of their relationship? I want to know Pomboi's history.
The use of a true historical figure adds to the situation of Clive and Roger. His true life shows the stress of living in a world that did not accept all loves. At the end of this story I had tears in my eyes. A small book but a big story.
November 14, 2011
Booooooooooring.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews