Enigma - Softcover

Harris, Robert

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0804115486 ISBN 13: 9780804115483

Publisher: Ballantine Books, 1996

Synopsis

"LITERATE AND SAVVY . . . BRIMS WITH WARTIME INTRIGUE."
--The Washington Post Book World
England 1943. Much of the infamous Nazi Enigma code has been cracked. But Shark, the impenetrable operational cipher used by Nazi U-boats, has masked the Germans' movements, allowing them to destroy a record number of Allied vessels. Feeling that the blood of Allied sailors is on their hands, a top-secret team of British cryptographers works feverishly around the clock to break Shark. And when brilliant mathematician Tom Jericho succeeds, it is the stuff of legend. . . .
"A TENSE AND THOUGHTFUL THRILLER."
--San Francisco Chronicle
Until the unthinkable happens: the Germans have somehow learned that Shark has been cracked. And they've changed the code. . . .
"SUSPENSEFUL AND FASCINATING."
--The Orlando Sentinel
As an Allied convoy crosses the U-boat infested North Atlantic . . . as Jericho's ex-lover Claire disappears amid accusations that she is a Nazi collaborator . . . as Jericho strains his last resources to break Shark again, he cannot escape the ultimate truth: There is a traitor among them. . . .
"GRIPPING . . . CAPTIVATING ."
--New York Daily News
"ELEGANTLY RESEARCHED . . . Readers will find themselves perfectly placed to experience one of Britain's finest hours."
--People
"SATISFYING . . . Harris does a crackerjack job here, playing his characters' lives off historical events in surprising ways."
--Entertainment Weekly
"SUSPENSEFUL . . . FIENDISHLY CLEVER."
--Detroit Free Press

About this title

Review:

A gripping World War II mystery novel with a cryptographic twist, Enigma's hero is Tom Jericho, a brilliant British mathematician working as a member of the team struggling to crack the Nazi Enigma code. Jericho's own struggles include nerve-wracking mental labour, the mysterious disappearance of a former girlfriend, the suspicions of his coworkers within the paranoid high-security project, and the certainty that someone close to him, perhaps the missing girl, is a Nazi spy. The plot is pure fiction but the historical background, Alan Turing's famous wartime computing project that cracked the German U-boat communications code, is real and accurately portrayed. Enigma is convincingly plotted, forcefully written, and filled with well-drawn characters; in short, it's everything a good techno-mystery should be. --James Early

Review:

"After the stunning success of his first novel, "Fatherland", the question was what would Robert Harris do for an encore? This is his ersounding answer." -- Phillip Knightley, "Mail on Sunday""Extraordinarily good -- and undoubtedly the best thriller of the year, and perhaps of several years to come." -- T.J. Binyon, "Evening Standard""I finished the book regretful it had ended, and full of wonder at the extraordinary world, people and achievements it evoked." -- David Cannadine, "Observer""Altogether top-class stuff" -- Peter Millar, "The Times"

About this edition

• Publisher: Ballantine Books
• Publication date: 1996
• ISBN 10: 0804115486
• ISBN 13: 9780804115483
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 384