The Enigma Game
The Enigma Game
I rang Mrs. Campbell from the red telephone kiosk by the bus shelter on the Aberdeen road. That was as far as we could get to the village of Windyedge without having to walk, and Mrs. Campbell said she’d arrange for someone to come in a car to collect us.
It felt like the end of the earth. I remembered, in a flash, a time when I’d been very small, following a path in the bush behind Granny Adair’s house on its bamboo stilts, and suddenly everything seemed strange. I was alone among the giant ferns and banana trees and huge Ananse spiderwebs, and I panicked. I wasn’t lost – I shouldn’t have been afraid. But I was terrified. I turned around and ran screeching back down the path to Granny Adair’s familiar shack and henhouses.
I felt a bit like that now. Only the bus shelter, the telephone kiosk, and a small post box sunk in a stone wall showed it was the twentieth century. All around were brown winter fields dotted with sheep, a brown hillside wreathed in low clouds, and unhappy blackthorns stooped by North Sea wind. There weren’t even any signposts. They’d all been taken down to confuse the Germans if they invaded. Smoke rose from the invisible village down the lane, almost a smell of tobacco, because they were burning peat, not coal – just as they’d done for thousands of years. Beyond the smoke stretched the sea, the cold North Sea.
But Mrs. Campbell had said there was an aerodrome nearby, for a Royal Air Force bomber squadron. The airmen came to her pub. Perhaps I’d see some of them there, young British men returning from combat over the North Sea.
The longing I felt when I watched an air battle swelled up in my throat again until it was drowning me. What in the world was I going to do here, to help win the war? Looking after Jane Warner would keep me from starving, but it wasn’t going to lead to anything else, was it?
My chest grew tight with the same kind of panic I’d felt in the green and quiet unfamiliar strangeness of the Jamaica bush.
But I couldn’t turn around and run screeching home this time.
Neither one of us could.
Louisa Adair is a young teen hired to live in a Scottish village and look after the elderly Jane Warner. She soon finds herself in the midst of a great deal of excitement. A German airman has risked everything in order to bring an Enigma Machine to the local pub. Louisa doesn’t report its arrival but does figure out how to use it once she is given coded signals received by Flight-Lieutenant Jamie Beaufort-Stuart. Others involved in the Enigma conspiracy at Windyedge include Ellen McEwan, a volunteer driver with access to the airfield who delivers the coded messages to Louisa, and Jane Warner who is German-born and, therefore, able to translate the information from German to English. Four very unlikely people put this machine to good use without any assistance from British Intelligence. But what of the German pilot who dropped it off? Might the machine actually be programmed to give false information to British forces?
Elizabeth Wein weaves an interesting, complicated and utterly fascinating plot around Louisa, Jamie, Ellen and Jane, and to provide more details in a review would spoil the many surprises awaiting readers. Once again Wein takes readers to a different time and place and treats them to a novel which is not only historically accurate but exciting and compelling. Details of World War Two, the RAF, and Blenheim bombers all intertwine in this complex story. And Wein goes further, examining the circumstances of women, of blacks and of gypsies in the mid twentieth century. Readers of Code Name Verity or Rose under Fire will recognize some characters and the war setting, but The Enigma Game stands completely on its own.
The novel is told from three different points of view, alternating from Jamie to Ellen and Louisa, and so readers gain an enhanced understanding of each of these characters. All three show strength and bravery, and all three, having grown and matured, are very different people by the end of the book. Jamie deals with issues of leadership and how best to both control and encourage the men in his command as well as with his personal worries and fears as a young RAF pilot. Wein helps readers feel they are in the aircraft with Jamie during routine patrols and bombing raids. Ellen manages to be dependable and strong whether ferrying air force brass in her Tilly or riding her bike to and from the local airfield. She is practical, reliable and brave regardless of the dangers around her. And Louisa, the youngest of the three and of Jamaican heritage, finds her place both as a caregiver to Jane and as a participant in the war effort, surpassing even her wildest dreams about how she might become involved in winning the war.
Wein gives readers strong and interesting secondary characters, not the least of which is Jane, a German-born opera singer who, despite her age and physical limitations, adds interest and humour to the story and is integral to the plot. As well, there is the local Scottish pub owner plus airmen from as far away as the United States and Australia. All must learn to work together as a team and cooperate if they are to be successful.
As interesting as the characters is the setting of the novel. Wein takes readers to Scotland with its clouds and fog and drizzle. Yet, like the air force men, readers find warmth in Nan’s pub where there might be piano or flute music or some of Jane’s records on the gramophone. Readers see the details provided by the author, right down to the coins pressed into the wood of the mantel and the beam across the bar. These details make the era and the people come alive for readers, and I, for one, hated to close the book and say good-bye.
Wein provides a few comments at the end of the book, giving readers insight into her careful research techniques. As well, there are suggestions for further reading. Many readers may want to more closely explore the wartime RAF, the Blenheim bomber or the Enigma machine, itself. Others may turn to the ancient works of Homer since the German “Odysseus” who drops off the Enigma machine will cause readers to think of the Trojan War, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Wein gave careful thought to naming her spy!
The Enigma Game explores not only war history but also race relations and the strong personal bonds created among the main characters. While designated as a young adult novel, I would not hesitate to recommend it to older readers as well since it provides an interesting perspective on the era of the Second World War, a cast of unforgettable characters, and enough excitement and action to keep readers on the edge of their seats from the first page to the last. It is a not-to-be-missed novel which should be available in libraries and schools everywhere.
Ann Ketcheson, a retired high school teacher-librarian and classroom teacher of English and French, lives in Ottawa, Ontario.