The Bletchley Riddle

In 2015 we visited Bletchley Park when we on a cricketing holiday in England and spent several hours exploring the location where so many people worked to break German Enigma codes during the Second World War. I was pleased, therefore, to see that a new historical fiction novel based at Bletchley Park had been written for middle-school age children. 

The Bletchley Riddle by Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin explores the attempts of Lizzie and Jakob Novis to find out what happened to their mother, Willa, who was in Poland when Hitler's forces invaded that country. Jacob works at Bletchley Park in Buckinghamshire. The Official Secrets Act means that he cannot tell anyone, including his family, where he is working or what what he does. His young sister, Lizzie was left in London and was meant to be travelling to America to stay with her grandmother. Instead she decides to remain in England and also finds herself at Bletchley Park.

Before leaving London, Lizzie found a small book that had belonged to her mother, which she hopes might help her solve the mystery of her mother's disappearance. With her new friends, Marion and Colin, Lizzie tries to decipher the significance of the book and also a series of coded messages that she and Jacob receive. Then the Germans start bombing London and other parts of England.

As well as providing an exciting story with puzzles to solve, The Bletchley Riddle, provides background information about life in England during the Second World War. It also provides an insight into the important work of the codebreakers at Bletchley Park.