The Enigma Girls: How Ten Teenagers Broke Ciphers, Kept Secrets, and Helped Win World War II

In this WWII narrative that ranges from 1939 to 1945, Fleming (Crash from Outer Space) chronicles the experiences of 10 young women who, with “record players and teddy bears in tow,” took up top secret work at Bletchley Park. Urgent prose sets the scene, detailing a period of barrage balloons, blackouts, and ration cards as government agencies—such as the “hush-hush” Government Code and Cipher School that inhabited Bletchley Park—move to countryside haunts in hopes of wartime safety. Quick-paced, thoroughly researched chapters subsequently intersperse a survey of WWII movements with specifics about Bletchley Park’s operations and individuals’ assigned tasks, including listening for encrypted Morse code messages, breaking ciphers, translating and indexing information, and working revolutionary machines such as the Bombes and the Colossus. In following the 10 teens’ often painstaking experiences, Fleming delivers a fascinating and cohesive overview of Bletchley Park’s necessarily siloed, collaborative inner workings that reveals how the figures’ ardent efforts affected the outcome of WWII. Engaging interstitials tackle the nuts and bolts of ciphers, clues, codes, and cribs, and b&w photograph reproductions help anchor era-specific information. An author’s note, extensive bibliography, and source notes conclude. Agent: Ethan Ellenberg, Ethan Ellenberg Literary. (Mar.)