Enigma - Robert Harris

When I started writing this blog I made a rule for myself that I can't start reading a new book until the blog post for the previous one has been written.  This ensures that I don't skip a blog post for any book, and so the record is maintained.  Unfortunately this time it's somewhat backfired.

Due to being off work ill, I read most of Enigma in one day, finishing on Tuesday 7th August.  Since then I have moved house, and so haven't managed to find the time to sit and write about it.  However there have been lots of occasions on which I could have happily sat down and read a few chapters of book.  And so the blog that was designed to keep me reading has stopped me reading.  The real lesson is, though, that I should just make the time to write sooner!

Back in January I read Fatherland by Robert Harris and commented that I would try some more of his books in future, and the next one I picked was Enigma.  As the name suggests, the story is based during World War II in Bletchley Park.  For those who don't know, Bletchley Park was where the greatest British minds of the generation gathered to break the codes generated by the German Enigma machines.

The plot itself focuses on one particular cryptoanalyst called Tom Jericho.  Part of it focuses on attempts to crack the hardest codes encountered so far, and the rest is a mystery surrounding Tom's former girlfriend.  Each section starts with an extract from the real cryptography manuals from Bletchley Park, which is nice to set the scene and to give some explanations about the jargon used.

Many of the characters are proper geeks, which is kind of what you would expect from a group of mathematicians that all get together for a secret project.  Personally, I didn't mind this.  But then being one of the geeky cryptoanalysts would have a huge appeal to me, which may have swayed my opinion somewhat.

The concept of the story was interesting.  At the start I wasn't really sure what to expect, which is probably a good way to go into a book really.  It means that the story is judged for what it is, not for what you thought you already knew about it.  In this case, the judging was pretty positive all round.  Some of the characters did lack a little depth.  I suppose you could argue that none of them knew each other overly well, and so the little details wouldn't have been mentioned, but it still felt difficult to really understand where they were coming from.

I would definitely recommend reading Enigma.  Apart from anything, the historical context is fascinating, and anything that makes you want to find out more about the time in which it was set must be a good thing.  I'm not sure what it would be like to read this with no prior knowledge of Turing, Bletchley Park or Enigma, but if that applies to you then read the book and let me know!