Today, I’m delighted to share the cover for The Rose Code, Kate Quinn’s newest novel – release date March 9, 2021. It has a wonderful colour scheme, an intriguing female figure – don’t you love the red dress and pearls? – and a back drop that suggests the computers used for WWII code breaking.
Kate’s novels are well known for larger-than-life characters, page-turning tension, and superb writing. Her ability to transport readers in time and place has earned her high praise from readers and reviewers. This new novel follows Kate’s highly successful novels, The Alice Network and The Huntress, and I can’t wait to read it.
The New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Huntress and The Alice Network returns with another heart-stopping World War II story of three female code breakers at Bletchley Park and the spy they must root out after the war is over.
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn ~~
1940. As England prepares to fight the Nazis, three very different women answer the call to mysterious country estate Bletchley Park, where the best minds in Britain train to break German military codes. Vivacious debutante Osla is the girl who has everything—beauty, wealth, and the dashing Prince Philip of Greece sending her roses—but she burns to prove herself as more than a society girl, and puts her fluent German to use as a translator of decoded enemy secrets. Imperious self-made Mab, product of east-end London poverty, works the legendary codebreaking machines as she conceals old wounds and looks for a socially advantageous husband. Both Osla and Mab are quick to see the potential in local village spinster Beth, whose shyness conceals a brilliant facility with puzzles, and soon Beth spreads her wings as one of the Park’s few female cryptanalysts. But war, loss, and the impossible pressure of secrecy will tear the three apart.
1947. As the royal wedding of Princess Elizabeth and Prince Philip whips post-war Britain into a fever, three friends-turned-enemies are reunited by a mysterious encrypted letter–the key to which lies buried in the long-ago betrayal that destroyed their friendship and left one of them confined to an asylum. A mysterious traitor has emerged from the shadows of their Bletchley Park past, and now Osla, Mab, and Beth must resurrect their old alliance and crack one last code together. But each petal they remove from the rose code brings danger–and their true enemy–closer…
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Earlier in the year, Kate Quinn was on the blog reflecting on her writing career. She had this to say on what she loves about writing historical fiction:
It’s a way to examine universal human issues through a lens of the past–and a way to make people realize that humanity has not changed, even if it dresses in different clothes and uses different language than we do in the modern era!
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M.K. Tod writes historical fiction. Her latest novel, TIME AND REGRET was published by Lake Union. Mary’s other novels, LIES TOLD IN SILENCE and UNRAVELLED are available from Amazon, Nook, Kobo, Google Play and iTunes. She can be contacted on Facebook, Twitter and Goodreads or on her website www.mktod.com.
12 Responses
Let’s talk about the cover… Notice how the color scheme closes matches Mary’s “Unravelled” and “Time and Regret”? So who’s the cover artist? And notice how it’s another “female back”? And why are we waiting 7 months? Oh, that’s right… traditional publishing! 😉 Thanks for post, Mary.
Chuckle chuckle. I must say that I had a déjà but feeling when I saw the cover!!
Another woman’s back on a novel cover!!! I do wish someone would explain why that approach has become so ubiquitous and what is its significance? Quinn is a great novelist, but uses that ‘signature’ on a lot of her books (as do many others).
Because: (A) it adds mystery (“what’s she looking at?”); (B) authors/publishers prefer to let the reader fill in the physical attributes of the main character(s), especially the face, in their reader minds; and (C) authors/publishers don’t want to associate a modern photographer’s model with a fictitious character, even more so from a long-ago era… it can break the spell, especially in historical fiction.
Of course, in my last novel, I broke all these rules by showing the full face of a Neanderthal (reconstruction). But that was for shock value and to show “they’re just like us.”
So a current rule of thumb is: Shoot from the back or chop off their heads!
Interesting point. Someone told me they like it because they can imagine what the character looks like. Do they do that with men?
Yep. But also depends on the genre. Take a look at the technothrillers by A.G. Riddle: all solo men in silhouette running towards or away from something cataclysmic. But if you move to Contemporary Romance, you’ve got guys’ faces (and 6-pack abs, of course ;-).
I guess each genre has its style. As for six-pack abs, give me intellect anytime over physique!
This is one to stalk on NetGalley and Edelweiss, I think!
Fingers crossed for you, Davida.
Thanks!
I want the woman on the cover of The Rose Code to be one of the characters. Has anyone noticed the hair? I am only half way through the book so I am thinking Beth or Osla. Any thoughts…..just about the cover photo and why! I get what she is looking at….lots to see.
Interesting thought, Cindi. When I read it, I imagined that this was one of Kate’s characters complete with the hairdo – but I have to confess that I don’t remember their names at this point. The publishers have a lot of say on cover design since the main point is to attract readers. I remember when Time and Regret was published by Lake Union and while I had input on the cover, I wasn’t part of the final decision. I did point out to them that they’d chosen a WWII airplane rather than a WWI airplane – and they did change that element! Showing women with a view from the back has been a popular approach for cover design for some time. The prevailing wisdom is that this enables readers to imagine the face of the characters without being constrained. Women on the cover signal a story that will appeal to women – who are by far the biggest buyers of fiction. The circles in Kate’s cover are there to suggest the computation device used at Bletchley Park. That’s my take!! Thanks so much for stopping by.