“Enigma” by Robert Harris

 

320 Pages, Random House, ISBN-13: 978-0679428879

Y’know, I’ve read a lot more of Robert Harris’ books than I realized: first there was Fatherland (reviewed on January 3^rd, 2024), next was Archangel (reviewed on February 3^rd, 2024) and now there’s Enigma – and I think this is the last one…but we’ll see. Unlike Harris’ other two books, Enigma is about actual events, in this case the English effort to crack the German “Enigma” cipher machine which was used to protect military communications. In the book, Tom Jericho, a gifted cryptanalyst at Bletchley Park – the principal center of Allied code-breaking during the World War II – is recuperating in Cambridge from a nervous breakdown brought on by the pressures of work and the breakup of his relationship with Claire Romilly, another cypher clerk. After a few weeks, he is told Bletchley needs him back since it has become locked out of the Naval Enigma and convoys HX-229 and SC-122 are at risk from a pack of 40 German U-Boats, setting up the largest convoy battle of the war.

In describing Bletchley Park’s attempts at decoding the German Enigma cyphers, Harris explains the art of cryptography, the workings of the Enigma Machine, the development of the first computers and even commentary on the collapse of the class system in Britain during the War. But the convoy battle simply serves as the background for the main story, for Claire has mysteriously disappeared and Jericho and Hester Wallace, Claire’s friend and flatmate, set out to solve the mystery, which appears to be related to some mysterious unbroken cryptograms from the Ukrainian front. What is the subject of the cryptograms? Is there someone inside Bletchley feeding information to the Nazis? Is the missing girl a traitor or a victim of circumstance? As the clues pile up and the mystery unfolds, Tom and Hester race against time in order not only to find Claire and solve the mystery of her disappearance, but to crack the Enigma code, as well.

I found Enigma to be a prototypical Harris book: an efficient and taut thriller, seamlessly interweaving the fictional mystery story with historical facts – the structure, by the way, intended to mimic the Enigma itself, with its wheels within wheels giving new meaning to strings of symbols, each wheel here being a new configuration or interpretation of some character’s motivation. And fear not if you are unfamiliar with the Enigma machine or the art of cryptology, for Harris manages to explain it all in readily accessible language and with easy to follow logic. Also, the characters are interesting enough that you actually give a damn what happens to them, even the mysterious Claire, who only appears in flashbacks and in other’s descriptions of her. But the real treat is the immersion into the paradoxical life of the intelligence agent: how do you use the information gained without compromising the source?