There is nothing better than a book that grabs my attention from the very beginning. I was hooked in chapter one. The thrills and chills just kept coming. There is a spy at Bletchley Park. Someone is sharing secrets with the enemy. MI5 enlisted a codebreaker to help. Of course, with the Secrets Act no one will know what is going on.

Alfred Has told is family that he works at a Printer's. His family has suspicions but there was no way of knowing until the unthinkable happens. He leaves for work like any other day. As he crosses the road he is hit by a speeding car that doesn't stop. Alfred was targeted and the target was hit.

Alfred is not doing well in the hospital. He can't do his job. The spy still has access messages that have been broken. His daughter, Hana, will have to step in to decode messages and find the spy or spies.

I have never misguessed so many times when reading a book. I thought I had figured things out so many times only to start second guessing myself. The edge of my seat suspense had me reading chapter after chapter needing to know. The secrets, the treasonous acts were mindblowing. Attempted murder and murder adds a wonderful who-done-it vibe to the story.

The characters add even more to the story. I learned of the struggles of those that are part of Bletchley Park. I was reminded that even in war; life goes on. Romances come and go. I was reminded of the strength of family. The unexpected hero had my heart pounding and hoping that a happily ever after would be in his future.

"I don't know where to look. Who to ask. Who to trust."

I spent this entire book trying to figure out who Hana could trust and I consistently found myself changing my opinion of the characters. This is my second book by Suzanne Fortin and she has me captivated from the first page. She writes stories of strong and heroic women that I just can't put down. Just when I think it is a good stopping point to take a break she writes something that has me picking it back up to find out what happens next.

This eARC was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Set in 1942 in the middle of World War II, this story focuses on the secretive world of Bletchley Park and the work that was done there to support the war effort. After her father is severely injured because of his job at Bletchley Park, Hana Phillips must take up his role decrypting Japanese naval codes while trying to find the spy that her father was about to reveal before they tried to silence him.

When this novel starts, Hana is extremely unhappy in her life. While she enjoys being a school teacher, she is angry when she is reprimanded for teaching the students about the Japanese culture since she spent much of her life in Japan. She is also in a cold marriage since her husband, Gregory, was injured during the war while he was a pilot 2 years prior. He has pushed her so far away and has come to pity himself so much that they barely communicate anymore let alone show any kind of affection for each other. He is cruel, not so much in how he treats her, but more so in how much he ignores her. She feels very alone and leans heavily on her family for comfort so she is devastated when her father is injured.

Once Hana is recruited to Bletchley Park to continue her father’s work and figure out who the spy is it becomes exceedingly hard to trust most of the characters. Any of the people Hana works with could be the spy and even the people she is supposed to report to seem to have their own agenda. Without being able to communicate with her father, Hana becomes more isolated and anxious trying to figure everything out. At the same time, she becomes more confident in herself as she thrives in her job of decrypting the Japanese naval codes.

Once she meets Robert, an American sent to Bletchley Park to also find the spy, she starts to really look at her marriage and question whether she wants to stay since it makes her feel so miserable. Robert dotes on her and makes her feel so special but Gregory sees this and starts to make changes to fight for Hana, worrying he is too late. However, the paranoia that Bletchley Park seems to cause sets in and she starts to wonder if she can trust either Robert or Gregory.

This book is full of twists and turns with red herrings put in place to make you question everything. It was interesting to see this mystery unfold from Hana’s eyes especially as her thoughts and feelings for each character evolved as things are revealed. Since we saw everything from Hana’s perspective, I felt not only her anxiety and fear grow as she learned new things but also her confidence in herself and her abilities. She grew into a strong, independent person that didn’t need anyone in her life to support her, but was able to decide who she actually wanted in her life to make her happy.

Overall, I enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down once the story got going. I’ve noticed that I have a hard time relating to Fortin’s main characters at the beginning of her novels but they grow so much throughout her books I always come to love them by the end. Definitely recommend!

A slight twist on the usual World War 2 dramas set at Bletchley Park. It focuses on codebreaking, naturally, but it is centre around information on Japan. It is fast paced through but I did find myself wanting to shout at Hana when she was trying to find out where the secret codes were as it was made blindingly obvious to us. A good read and I would look for future books by this author.

This was an interesting delve into working life in Bletchley Park in WW2. It focuses on Hana whose father was seriously injured in a car collision. she was asked to take his place in decoding Japanese messages owing to her background in linguistics and having spent a few years living in Japan prior to the outbreak of WW2. She then faces several challenges, finding a mole in her department and then trying to revive a stale marriage to a man severely injured in a plan crash. The two storylines are interwoven well although I would have like more focus on espionage rather than romance. I liked the ending where she and her husband were able to reconnect and rekindle their marriage offering forgiveness to each other, something that our society could possibly learn a great deal from.

Bletchley Park, 1942. Teacher Hana Phillips is married to Gregory and is fluent in Japanese and keen to help the war effort so she accepts an unexpected job offer at Bletchley Park. Hana lived in Japan as a child, she and her father Alfred Castle do crosswords together and both are very intelligent and she fills in for him when he was injured.

Hana is to assist cracking the Japanese naval codes, she’s also given a secret mission they have a spy in hut seven and they want her to find out who it is. Hana can’t tell anyone what’s she doing, she has no idea who she can trust and including her co-workers, her marriage is in trouble and she discovers her husband is also at Bletchley Park and he’s not happy and things are tense at home.

I received a copy of The Codebreaker’s Daughter by Suzanne Fortin from NetGalley and Embla Book in exchange for an honest review. I have read so many books set in Bletchley Park, to be honest I wasn’t sure if I wanted to scrutinize another and wondered if I would discover any new information or facts and I was wrong.

This well narrative looks what happened during the Second World War from a different angle and perspective. It’s about a group of codebreakers trying to figure out what the Japanese were doing in the Pacific, at the time very few English people would have been fluent in the language, and had knowledge of country and culture.

A faced paced story full of intrigue, danger, secrets, a spy network and they would do anything not be exposed and caught and including murder.

Five stars from me, a thrilling historical fiction novel and it keeps you guessing who the traitors are until the end and the have enjoyed Ms Fortin’s previous books including; All That We Have Lost, The Forgotten Life of Arthur Pettinger and The Dance Teacher of Paris and I highly recommend them all.

An amazing historical fiction read during World War Two at Bletchley Park.
The suspense it presents was enough for me to enjoy the book so much that I couldn’t put it down. This is my second book of Suzanne Fortin and it was engaging and as well as heartbreaking what the war has done to people’s lives to survived

Thank you NetGalley and Embla Books for this wonderful story -ARC.

The Codebreaker's Daughter is a WWII novel with a twist.

Hana's father, Alfred, is a codebreaker at Bletchley Park, decrypting Japanese communications while searching for a mole in the Park. After an accident leaves him unable to do his job, Hana is recruited to take up his position. Decoding the Japanese messages proves to be complicated, but finding the spy proves to be difficult and dangerous.

This book started off fast-paced and kept it up through the entire novel. Hana and Gregory were very likable characters. I enjoyed learning all about the codebreakers and the tactics they used to decipher messages during the war. However, the book was extremely predictable and followed a very cliched pattern - a girl is swept off her feet by the handsome officer, she begins to doubt his motives, it turns out he's not who he says he is, there's a dangerous confrontation, and she's rescued by her actual true love. Midway through the novel, it is pretty obvious who the bad guys are. By the end of the book, I was pretty apathetic about the whole thing.

3 ⭐s.

Thanks to NetGalley and Embla Books for an advanced copy. The book is scheduled to be published on July 15, 2025.

Historical drama set during World War Two featuring the work of codebreakers at Bletchley Park. A great main character in Hand and an unusual twist compared to most codebreaker stories.

Enjoyed from first page to last .Characters that come alive a mix of emotional moments mixed in with humor.The codebreaker’s daughter historical fiction at its best .#netgalley#emblabooks

this is such a moving and captivating read. you feel the tension of the time and tension for our characters and what they must be facing. this goes one step further when war work leads to even more risk and emotional courage will be needed throughout.
i was tense, worried and right there with our main character. she was a great character to read and took me alongside her all the way.
Hana is a linguist so is obviously vital for efforts at the time of war. and this is how she finds herself recruited into the work at Bletchley and doesn't she just know how important this is. and this is extra gripping because ive not seen this part to do with de coding the Japanese and searching out a mole who leaking intelligence, done before in a book before.
but life goes on even with what she must brave for work. because Hana has a fraught time at home too. her poorly father is never fair from mind and her marriage seems to be about to unfold around her. with fears from both work and home who can she trust at a time when she needs to be able to do it most.
this book had my emotions in a choke hold and i was fully immersed in it and it didn't let up from beginning to end.
this is such an impactful and brilliant read. it goes right up there with one of the best of the genre ive read recently.

This was a truly wonderful read. Full of love, courage and secrecy this made for a great story which was hard to put down. The story flowed beautifully from the tragic beginning through to the end. Hana and her husband were great characters and their love and courage shone through. I loved it.

Suzann Fortin, The Codebreaker's Daughter, Embla Books, July 2025.

Thank you, NetGalley, for providing me with this uncorrected proof for review.

The Codebreaker’s Daughter is not just another book in which women’s impact on the work at Bletchley Park is central to the plot. Hana is a Japanese speaker and an expert at solving puzzles that involve language skills. These she perfects with her father over cross word puzzles, and it is this relationship and her linguistic skills that bring her into Bletchley Park, a world of secrets and danger.
Hana’s marriage is strained since her pilot husband’s crash has rendered him uncommunicative and seemingly uncaring. Hana is ready to give up on the marriage, when she is told that they must billet an American. As work proceeds at Bletchley, romances are also begun, and together with these, the possibility that there are spies in their midst. Hana’s father’s accident and subsequent inability to communicate, makes her work replacing him even more difficult.
This is a well plotted story, with an intriguing insight into codebreaking, Hana style. However, although it moves along quite quickly and the resolution is satisfying, for me this was a pleasant enough beach read, but nothing more.

The Codebreaker's Daughter tells the story of Hana, a British teacher in the UK during the WWII time period whose father works as a printer and is hit by a car on the way to work. Hana and her family had lived in Japan and both Hana and her dad speak fluent Japanese. Hana and her husband have hit a rough patch after he was shot down and injured. She is approached by her father's employers and told that he was not a printer but a codebreaker working at Bletchley Park and that the Government wanted her to take up her father's work. The signing of the Official Secrets Act meant that her father could not tell his family what he was doing - nor could her husband tell her that he, too, works at Bletchley Park. There is so much going on here - Hana is tasked with codebreaking as well as trying to find out who is the spy/mole in the workroom while she starts a dalliance with their border, a visiting American. This book has it all - a fascinating look into the work done at Bletchley Park, interesting, likeable, and sympathetic characters, a mystery, and a murder. I couldn't put it down! Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review.

When I was about a quarter through The Codebreaker's Daughter, the book seemed so familiar to me, as if I had read this Suzanne Fortin novel before. I stopped reading and looked for information that this novel was a reissue, but I could only find an earlier paperback release in the UK. Although I couldn't find an earlier U.S. release or any information about The Codebreaker's Daughter being a reissue, I turned out t be right about the ending of the novel and how Fortin wrapped up all her loose ends. So how did I know how it would end?

I can't provide a lot of detail, since I do not want to provide spoilers. The Codebreaker's Daughter takes place in 1942 in England's Bletchley Park. The narrator is Hana, who begins the novel as a teacher but who quickly takes over her father's job as a codebreaker, when he is injured in a hit and run accident. After Hana begins working at Bletchley Park, a job she cannot even identity as her job, the novel picks up. There are spies, secrets, betrayal, trust, integrity and the importance of family love, all of which impact Hana and the people surrounding her. There were times when I just wanted to yell, "don't do it!" to Hana. Fortunately she listened to me. lol

Thank you to Embla Books and NetGalley for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I am recommending The Codebreaker's Daughter. It is a good mystery and held my attention all the way through.

4.5 = 5 stars

Having visited Bletchley Park (highly recommended) I have read a few novels set there, although this was the first focussing on the war with Japan rather than the European zone. The characters are great and Hana's understanding of what is happening shifts as she becomes more embedded in life at the Park. The reader is left guessing till the end as to who is the mole, and why. This is a great wartime thriller - thankyou Suzanne Fortin.

Thanks to Net Galley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book.

A fascinating story of a young woman, Hana Phillips, in Blitz era England (1942) who finds herself at Bletchley Hall decoding Japanese naval codes. Her marriage is a mess, her husband, injured during the war opposes the work she is doing, and it appears there may be a mole in the group. Hana’s husband is also in intelligence work which adds another layer of complexity, as they can’t talk about what they are doing and there is a possibility that he could be the mole. Well researched, well written, with a skosh of romantic tension thrown in, the story takes us in many directions as we try to solve the mystery, along with Hana. Who can she trust? Who is the spy? Can her marriage be saved? A really great read!

What an enjoyable read. When Hana Phillips is recruited for Bletchley for her language skills, mainly Japanese she can’t imagine to lengths people will go to to silence her, or to find out what she knows. It takes time for some colleagues to accept Hana, she feels due to her being fast-tracked in.
Hana and husband Gregory have been drifting apart since Gregory was badly injured in a flying accident so it doesn’t take much to flatter her when they have a house guest.

I really enjoyed this book, plenty threads to throw you off the scent (just when you’d decided who the perpetrator was),
Can’t recommend it enough.

Hana, the daughter of a codebreaker at Bletchley Park, is suddenly called upon to use her knowledge of Japanese and stand in for her father in a top-secret assignment which puts her in danger and puts a strain on her marriage to her wounded and disfigured husband. Full of suspense and also budding romance, this is a very enjoyable read.

A wonderful read!
This novel drew me in from the very first page and kept me hooked until the end. The characters were vibrant and relatable, the writing was engaging, and the story had just the right balance of heart and humor. Highly recommend!
Many thanks to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for my ARC. All opinions are my own.