The Rose Code

by Kate Quinn

Except—maybe—the two women she had betrayed, who had betrayed her, who had once been her friends.

One of the very first images I had of this book—back when I had no idea who my heroines would be, or what their names were, or what had happened between them—I knew exactly what my opening image was: a ciphered letter arriving in the mail for two women hundreds of miles apart, sent from behind the gates of an asylum by an enemy they haven't spoken to in years, containing a desperate cry for help. That opening image never changed, throughout all the many edits and plot shifts and research tweaks!