Enigma - Robert Harris

This is the first Robert Harris book I've read - and I was extremely impressed - it is a book full of suspense and the kind of plot driven narrative that I enjoy. He's extremely good on constructing believable characters - and their emotions and motivations are well described. This is the story of Tom Jericho a brilliant mathematician, undergraduate at Cambridge recruited at the start of the War for secret work - the cracking of the German Naval communication codes known as Enigma. This isn't really the tale of Enigma and Bletchley Park (the Government's Communication and Code Breaking HQ) more a good old-fashioned thriller,almost a detective story. Tom's ex-girlfriend disappears and Tom uncovers a very murky world of deception and intrigue, and finds that the secrecy of the work at Bletchley Park may well have been compromised, possibly endangering the lives of thousands - the sailors in the ships of the North Atlantic convoys, and possibly the opening of the new front proposed on D-Day. Harris describes the intricacies of code breaking expertly, and without being patronising. Although some of what is discovered is not a true revelation (because with the benefit of hisory these horrors are now in the public domain) the journey towards the conclusion is exciting enough. Rating - a deserved 8/10