The Rose Code

by Kate Quinn

She lived in a house of the mad, where truth became madness and madness, truth.

Beth's asylum scenes were hard to write. Mental institutions of the past could be hellish places for women, many of whom were confined because they were inconvenient rather than because they were mentally afflicted. At least one Bletchley Park woman really was sent to an institution after an emotional breakdown, because it was feared she might reveal classified information in her broken state—her experience was the inspiration for Beth's incarceration, which is the purest form of hell to a woman whose brilliant mind is her greatest asset. But it's Beth's mind that will keep her body and soul together as she plans her escape.