Review: Secrets at Bletchley Park

I don't know about you but I find the work that was done at Bletchley Park during World War II to be absolutely fascinating. There's still a lot of mystery around it but after reading The Rose Code by Kate Quinn earlier this year, I wanted to know everything. So, when I was offered the chance to review Secrets at Bletchley Park by Margaret Dickinson I jumped at it. Turns out it wasn't exactly the kind of novel I was expecting. It wasn't bad but I wish I had realized beforehand what I was getting into.

Here's the book's description:

In Secrets at Bletchley Park by Margaret Dickinson, two young women from very different backgrounds meet in the Second World War and are plunged into a life where security and discretion are paramount. But both have secrets of their own to hide . . .
In 1929, life for 10-year-old Mattie Price, born and raised in the back streets of Sheffield, is tough. With a petty thief for a father and a mother, who turns to the bottle to cope with her husband’s brutish ways, it is left to the young girl and her brother, Joe, to feed and care for their three younger siblings. But Mattie has others rooting for her too. The Spencer family, who live at the top of the same street, and Mattie’s teachers recognize that the girl is clever beyond her years and they, and Joe, are determined that she shall have the opportunity in life she deserves.
Victoria Hamilton, living in the opulence of London’s Kensington, has all the material possessions that a young girl could want. But her mother, Grace, a widow from the Great War, is cold and distant, making no secret of the fact that she never wanted a child. Grace lives her life in the social whirl of upper-class society, leaving Victoria in the care of her governess and the servants. At 11 years old, Victoria is sent to boarding school where for the first time in her young life she is able to make friends of her own age.
Mattie and Victoria are both set on a path that will bring them together at Bletchley Park in May 1940. An unlikely friendship between the two young women is born and together they will face the rest of the war keeping the nation’s secrets and helping to win the war. They can tell no one, not even their families, about their work or even where they are. But keeping the secrets is second nature to both of them . . .

Considering the length of that description, you'd think I'd know what was what when I went into reading this book. Um. Nope. Not so much. The story is divided into three equal parts. Part one follows Mattie from 1929 through to 1940 when she arrives at Bletchley Park. Part two goes back in time and tells the story of what Victoria was up to during the same time period. And then part three is the pair's story together from 1940 until just past the end of the war in 1945. Considering the title, I was kind of expecting more than just a third of the novel to take place at, you know, Bletchley Park. So that was a disappointment. 

It shouldn't be a surprise to longtime readers of the blog that I love historical fiction and very much enjoy WWII novels. Because of that, I feel like I've learned a lot of facts about the war that have made those school history lessons from way back when come to life and stick in my mind a little bit more. I consider a historical fiction novel good, in part, when it doesn't feel like a textbook. This novel was kinda like that. The details about the war that were shared were pretty basic - at least in my opinion. There wasn't a single unknown event or incident in the entire novel for me. Not that I know everything or even a ton about the mentioned events but it was all surface level information. Is this a bad thing? No. What I think this means is that I was not the target demographic for this novel. I think if there's a reader who enjoys history but doesn't necessarily want the nitty gritty or wants to be reminded of the big events and how they impacted people, this is the kind of story for them. Not necessarily one like me who reads a ton of WWII set novels every year.

What made this novel more enjoyable for me was the way Dickinson told her characters' stories. I couldn't quite figure out how to describe the way she wrote the novel. There were a lot of characters. It was all told in third person so the perspective jumped around from character to character even though Mattie and Victoria were the main threads of the story. Anyway. I didn't know how to explain what this was like until I noticed a Daily Express review on the back of the book where they called Dickinson, "The Queen of Saga." Saga! That was it. This was a sweeping story that impacted a lot of characters and you were immersed in their lives. That's where Dickinson shines.

So, Secrets at Bletchley Park wasn't a winner for me but I'm still glad I read Margaret Dickinson's novel. She introduced me to some wonderful characters who I really felt for as I read their stories over the course of the novel. 

*A copy of this novel was provided by the Canadian distributor, PGC Books, in exchange for review consideration. All opinions are honest and my own.*