Hello, I’m Olivia Redmond, and I’ve been ordered by Britain’s spymaster to take the place of a young woman who’s been killed. When I tell people I feel odd replacing a murder victim, I’m not completely joking.

Ordinarily I’d be telling you about my life in London as a society and women’s page reporter for the Daily Premier, concerned with fashion and charity teas. Now, three months after the war with Germany began, my life has changed. By December, 1939, many young male reporters have been called up and paper shortages mean shorter newspapers. Women’s articles have been eliminated and I’m now working on the features desk.

Normally, I live in a flat with my army officer husband when he gets leave, which is rare. I ride the Tube to work. I eat out frequently, go to concerts and parties and plays, and love the energy of London.

However, I foolishly came to the attention of Sir Malcolm Freemantle, Britain’s spymaster, who “borrows” me from the newspaper on occasion for clandestine assignments. This time, I’ve been sent to a little railroad town fifty miles north of London where they are developing Britain’s secret weapon.

I’m fluent in German, as was the murdered girl, Sarah Wycott, so I’ve taken her position as a German linguist in a super-secret facility called Bletchley Park. The government had billeted her in the servants’ quarters of Bloomington Grove manor house and they assigned me her room. Now I need to discover who killed Sarah, and more importantly, why.

If Sarah was killed because she’d angered someone or had a jealous boyfriend, Sir Malcolm would be overjoyed. He fears she was killed because she discovered a German agent infiltrating Bletchley Park.

Germany uses Enigma machines to encrypt all their military messages and they believe Britain will never be able to break these codes. In response, Britain has assembled their greatest minds at Bletchley Park to break those codes and read German war plans.

If Germany could get a sleeper agent inside Bletchley Park, they would remove Britain’s best defense. I was sent here in case Sarah died uncovering a sleeper agent.

My day begins in my little room in the servants’ quarters of Bloomington Grove. There are eight young women billeted there sharing one bathroom, which makes getting ready for work difficult with stocking seams straight, hair neatly styled, and makeup discreetly applied. Bloomington Grove’s owners still have two older servants taking care of them and preparing our meals, so breakfast was better than what I fix at home.

Then the eight of us walk down to the bus stop and take a bus provided by Bletchley Park to work. I work in Hut Six, a frigid temporary building, setting my redesigned typewriter the way I am told and then typing in messages to see if what comes out of the machine is German or gibberish.

Lunch is in the Park canteen, where I can talk to people who knew Sarah and develop clues. Then it’s back to more typing in the afternoon before a bus ride back to Bloomington Grove for a simple but tasty dinner prepared by the earl’s cook. On occasion, we get off the bus at the village closest to the manor house and have a half-pint in the pub or make a phone call from the call box on the village green before walking the rest of the way on a dark country lane during the blackout. On the bus and in the pub, I can talk to more of Sarah’s colleagues.

Evenings are spent knitting—something everyone is doing for our troops, listening to the wireless set, handwashing clothes, and washing and setting hair. I learned a great deal about Sarah and her life leading up to her murder while sitting in the old servants’ hall in the evenings talking to my housemates. Then an early bedtime because we’re up early the next morning to start again.

Of course, on any day I might make a discovery, such as a secret door or a secret boyfriend, that will lead me toward the killer.

Deadly Cypher, A Deadly Series – World War II Mystery #7
Genre: Historical
Release: August 2021
Purchase Link

Could a murder at Bletchley Park cost Britain the war?

November, 1939. The British government has assembled a small group of intellectuals at an estate north of London as part of a top-secret codebreaking effort. Everything about it is clandestine. The facility is ringed with a veil of silence until one of the young female linguists is murdered.

Britain’s counterintelligence spymaster tasks Olivia Redmond with finding the killer and the motive. Olivia is sent in alone, without clues or suspects.

Did the murder victim uncover a mole? Could Britain’s program to break German enigma cyphers be compromised?

If Olivia fails, it could mean the destruction of Britain.

About the author
Kate Parker grew up inside the Beltway, when DC was a sleepy southern city and you could walk along the sidewalk directly in front of the White House. Now you can’t get within a block of the White House, and it takes Foggy Bottom and the Pentagon to house even part of what the Old State, War and Navy building held. All this fed Kate’s love of history. With retirement, Kate moved to North Carolina and took up writing historical mysteries. The author of the Deadly Series, the Milliner Mysteries, and the Victorian Bookshop Mysteries, all set in London, she has also written for the Christmas Revels regency anthologies. She lives with her daughter where they are servants to a 90-pound puppy.

All comments are welcomed.