Three teens in Scotland during World War II find an Enigma machine in Elizabeth Wein's riveting fourth historical YA novel in the Code Name Verity companion series, The Enigma Game.
In November 1940, 15-year-old Louisa Adair takes a job caring for an elderly German woman in the village neighboring the Windyedge Royal Air Force base. This is the closest she can come to her dreams of flying in the war effort since her gender and British-Jamaican heritage bar her from service. Ellen McEwen is an RAF volunteer at Windyedge, but she worries her peers will reject her if they discover her itinerant Traveller upbringing. And 19-year-old Flight Lieutenant Jamie Beaufort-Stewart is focused on seeking an advantage over German fighters as deaths from air battles mount. When a German spy hides a package at the village pub, Louisa finds inside a coveted Enigma machine used to translate German code. She tells Ellen and Jamie, and the three keep the machine a secret in hopes of using it to give their squadrons the upper hand. But nothing is straightforward in war, and the three young patriots discover there is little they can do that comes without consequence.
Elizabeth Wein has once again created a captivating and empathetic novel with The Enigma Game, a compelling and emotionally taut work of historical fiction told in alternating narrative chapters. Returning readers of the companion novels will find familiar faces (though previous reading isn't necessary to appreciate the story), and her new characters are vividly drawn, with deep emotional lives. Propelled as much by themes of racial, social and gender prejudice as by spies and air battles, Wein's story of unexpected friendship and empowerment during wartime is intelligent, compassionate and thrilling. --Jennifer Oleinik, freelance writer and editor