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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
Somewhere between 3 and 3.5 stars. I enjoyed the set up and characters, but guessed the murderer about halfway through as there weren't enough plausible suspects introduced to us. I also wish that the code breaking setting played more into the mystery!
LOVED THIS. Ending was a tad predictable but SO GOOD
I previously read another book by this author set in the 1980's None Shall Sleep. I don't usually go for historical fiction, particularly WW2 Era because it is difficult for me to read, because of personal reasons. The Killing Code blew me away from the very start. Kathleen is a maid for a sweet rich girl named Katherine Sutherland. Katherine is dying and leaves Kathleen her possessions and her nickname. Kit is about to leave Arlington Hall when she encounters a couple young women who are going to work for the government helping to break codes. Kit makes a snap decision to present herself as Katherine and take the opportunity to rise above her station as a very poor young woman from West Virginia.
A few months later and Kit is rooming with Dottie and many other young women helping with the war effort. She is in awe of Moya Kershaw, a supervisor and beautiful young woman. Until the night of a dance when her roommate doesn't come back before curfew. Kit is so worried about Dottie that she asks Moya to help find her. One of the men there who has a car gives them a ride to where the dance was located. Kit finds Dottie alive but sleepy, having been drugged and they are about to leave when Kit uses the bathroom and discovers a young woman, dead.
Then a high stakes plot kick starts, with 4 young women investigating two connected murders because of their lack of faith in the police. Violet is a young Black woman working in a segregated area doing code breaking. So Moya, Violet, Kit and Dottie form a secret club investigating who is killing women and profiling suspects. These are intelligent young women using their code breaking skills to track down a predator who rapes and murders women - before he kills anyone else. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was impossible to put down. I also enjoyed the romance between Moya and Kit. Unfortunately Kit is hiding a secret she's afraid will come out about her identity. When it comes to finding the real identity of the murderer will their lives be at risk?
TW for mentions of rape, violent murder,segregation, closeted LGBTQ, using Nazi imagery.
A few months later and Kit is rooming with Dottie and many other young women helping with the war effort. She is in awe of Moya Kershaw, a supervisor and beautiful young woman. Until the night of a dance when her roommate doesn't come back before curfew. Kit is so worried about Dottie that she asks Moya to help find her. One of the men there who has a car gives them a ride to where the dance was located. Kit finds Dottie alive but sleepy, having been drugged and they are about to leave when Kit uses the bathroom and discovers a young woman, dead.
Then a high stakes plot kick starts, with 4 young women investigating two connected murders because of their lack of faith in the police. Violet is a young Black woman working in a segregated area doing code breaking. So Moya, Violet, Kit and Dottie form a secret club investigating who is killing women and profiling suspects. These are intelligent young women using their code breaking skills to track down a predator who rapes and murders women - before he kills anyone else. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and it was impossible to put down. I also enjoyed the romance between Moya and Kit. Unfortunately Kit is hiding a secret she's afraid will come out about her identity. When it comes to finding the real identity of the murderer will their lives be at risk?
TW for mentions of rape, violent murder,segregation, closeted LGBTQ, using Nazi imagery.
I liked it, but I could tell who the killer was pretty quickly. It was disappointing in that aspect. I loved the codebreaker aspect, and the characters were fun, but the clues were too obvious for the murder. It felt too easy to solve, but still fun.
challenging
emotional
funny
hopeful
informative
inspiring
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
N/A
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
wooo I finally found a book that got me out of my reading slump
There r many things I love about the book:
1. The trope where a bunch of school girls solve a huge serial murder case that no one else can solve, like come on I love that sm
2. The fact that the main character holds secrets of her own (WHICH SHE CAN LITERALLY BE KILLED FOR) while she's trying to uncover the murderer - it makes the book sm more interesting cause the reader's constantly thinking about what's going to happen to her. Her secret's revealed in the first couple of pages which really keeps the reader hooked
3. The history. Usually history bores me sm but I honestly never knew anything about the American codebreaking girls during the war and like the feminism in the book oml. The book contains quotes from real codebreakers at the time and yeah it's nice to hear their voices and ahh it's so interesting. Also, the book brought attention to the segregated codebreaking units and again that's something I never knew about. I'm really glad that the character Violet, a black maid, was one of the main characters as she really showed the prejudice black people experienced at that time and how different their lives were to white people. It's still crazy to me that all that prejudice happened less than a hundred years ago like wtaf
4. THE ROMANCE OML like damn I've never read a mystery book with actual romance but oml and it's literally gay too like what I did not expect that when I decided to read this mystery book
5. The characters and their friendship
Ok now moving on to things that weren't that good:
1. I'm ngl the book wasn't written that well. I don't really mind cause overall it was still a good book but yeah some of the descriptions were too informal and boring so I skim-read those parts
2. I like the final revelation at the end but it would have been nicer if the book went into more detail about the other suspects. Because only their names were revealed and some basic description and that made it clear that they weren't the murderers.
3. I like the ending but it's ambiguous about why the characters are going there so I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it
That's all I'm gonna end the review with a quote from the book cause yk I love my quotes:
"I'm starting to get the feeling that wars don't end... That they just change shape. Thin out and infest homes, families..."
That quote just made me think sm like damn ik that's kind of a negative way to end the review but yeah it's interesting.
OK GO READ THE BOOK NOW <3
There r many things I love about the book:
1. The trope where a bunch of school girls solve a huge serial murder case that no one else can solve, like come on I love that sm
2. The fact that the main character holds secrets of her own (WHICH SHE CAN LITERALLY BE KILLED FOR) while she's trying to uncover the murderer - it makes the book sm more interesting cause the reader's constantly thinking about what's going to happen to her. Her secret's revealed in the first couple of pages which really keeps the reader hooked
3. The history. Usually history bores me sm but I honestly never knew anything about the American codebreaking girls during the war and like the feminism in the book oml. The book contains quotes from real codebreakers at the time and yeah it's nice to hear their voices and ahh it's so interesting. Also, the book brought attention to the segregated codebreaking units and again that's something I never knew about. I'm really glad that the character Violet, a black maid, was one of the main characters as she really showed the prejudice black people experienced at that time and how different their lives were to white people. It's still crazy to me that all that prejudice happened less than a hundred years ago like wtaf
4. THE ROMANCE OML like damn I've never read a mystery book with actual romance but oml and it's literally gay too like what I did not expect that when I decided to read this mystery book
5. The characters and their friendship
Ok now moving on to things that weren't that good:
1. I'm ngl the book wasn't written that well. I don't really mind cause overall it was still a good book but yeah some of the descriptions were too informal and boring so I skim-read those parts
2. I like the final revelation at the end but it would have been nicer if the book went into more detail about the other suspects. Because only their names were revealed and some basic description and that made it clear that they weren't the murderers.
3. I like the ending but it's ambiguous about why the characters are going there so I'm not entirely sure how I feel about it
That's all I'm gonna end the review with a quote from the book cause yk I love my quotes:
"I'm starting to get the feeling that wars don't end... That they just change shape. Thin out and infest homes, families..."
That quote just made me think sm like damn ik that's kind of a negative way to end the review but yeah it's interesting.
OK GO READ THE BOOK NOW <3
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I really enjoyed this story. I liked the historical aspect and the important role that the characters played in such a dire time. i liked their relationship together and how they all worked well to do the investigating. i liked the queer rep and the development of that relationship, as much as it could be during that time period. all around a good book, just not overwhelmingly amazing
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault
Moderate: Physical abuse
Minor: Rape, Antisemitism
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No