"Evans's
characters are vividly drawn, elevating this story and its revelations about
women's little-celebrated contributions to the war effort."— Washington Post
"An
exciting read with historical tidbits, a hint of danger, and a touch of
romance."— Kirkus Reviews
The
Traitor Beside Her is an intricately plotted WWII espionage novel weaving
together mystery, action, friendship, and a hint of romance perfect for fans of The Rose Code and Code Name Helene.
Justine Byrne can't trust the
people working beside her. Arlington Hall, a former women's college in Virginia
has been taken over by the United States Army where hundreds of men and women
work to decode countless pieces of communication coming from the Axis powers.
Justine works among them,
handling the most sensitive secrets of World War II—but she isn't there to
decipher German codes—she's there to find a traitor.
Justine keeps her guard up
and her ears open, confiding only in her best friend, Georgette, a fluent
speaker of Choctaw who is training to work as a code talker. Justine tries to
befriend each suspect, believing that the key to finding the spy lies not in
cryptography but in understanding how code breakers tick. When young women
begin to go missing at Arlington Hall, her deadline for unraveling the web of
secrets becomes urgent and one thing remains clear: a single secret in enemy
hands could end thousands of lives.
"A
fascinating and intelligent WWII home front story." —Rhys Bowen, New York Times bestselling author for The Physicists' Daughter
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The
Traitor Beside Her is set in Washington,
DC, in 1944. Justine Byrne is working undercover to find a spy who is embedded
with a group of code-breakers who are essential to the war effort. She is
brand-new to espionage and barely trained, but she’s smart, and she works hard, and she’s scared to death, so she’ll be just fine, probably….
This
photo shows the real-life female code-breakers who inspired The Traitor
Beside Her. They were recruited based on their intelligence, mathematical
ability, and verbal ability. Being good at crossword puzzles was a plus, too!
They did life-and-death, grueling work for years under conditions of absolute
secrecy, and they were critical to the success of the Allies in winning WWII.
Photo
credit: Signal Intelligence Service
Fun Fact 1: The fabulous nightclub where Justine is taken on a date
by a man who wants to impress her very much was a real place called the Mayfair
Café. It offered fine dining, exotic cocktails, and entertainment that ranged
from jazz combos to magicians. Here is a photo of the actual Mayfair Café, with
its evocative mood lighting. The jazz combo and dancing would have been at the
rear of this photo, where you can see the grand piano.
Photo credit: Library of
Congress
Fun Fact 2: The massive complex where Justine works as part of a code-breaking operation during World War II, Arlington Hall, was a real place, shown in the photo below. The government took over a campus that had belonged to the Arlington Hall Junior College for women, using the existing buildings and constructing more and bigger buildings to make space for people doing work similar to that done at the more famous Bletchley Park in England.
Photo credit: Library of
Congress
Fun Fact 3: The dormitories at Arlington Farms, where Justine and Georgette live while they’re working at Arlington Hall, were also real. The site is currently part of the Arlington National Cemetery. This photo shows a newly constructed dormitory at Arlington Farms called Maine Hall. Justine’s home would have looked very much like it.
Photo credit: Library of
Congress
Fun Fact 4: The women’s dormitories at Arlington Farms became so famous that soldiers and sailors visited the campus like a tourist attraction when they came home. This fame meant that there were a number of articles written about the dormitories (which helped me a lot with my research!), as well as many photos (which helped me even more!) Here’s a photo of the interior of one of the bedrooms.
Photo credit: Library of
Congress
Fun Fact 5: One of the real-life female code breakers, Ann
Caracristi, spent the rest of her life working in intelligence for the US
government, rising to the rank of Chief of Research and Operations of the NSA.
The women in The Traitor Beside Her are modeled on Ann and others who
performed heroic service that was critically important to the Allies’ success.
An interview with Ann can be found on the Library of Congress website: https://www.loc.gov/item/afc2001001.30844/
Photo credit: Library of
Congress
REALLY REALLY FUN FACT, BONUS EDITION: Scroll back to the top of this post and look at the photo of the real-life code-cracking women at work. The blond woman on the right side of the photo is Ann Caracristi.
Mary Anna Evans
Mary Anna Evans is an award-winning author, a writing professor, and she holds degrees in physics and engineering, a background that, as it turns out, is ideal for writing her Justine Byrne series, which began with The Physicists’ Daughter and continues with her new book, The Traitor Beside Her. She describes Justine as “a little bit Rosie-the-Riveter and a little bit Bletchley Park codebreaker.”
Mary Anna’s crime fiction has earned recognition that includes two Oklahoma Book Awards, the Will Rogers Medallion Awards Gold Medal, and the Benjamin Franklin Award, and she co-edited the Edgar-nominated Bloomsbury Handbook to Agatha Christie.
Social Media Links:
Website: https://www.maryannaevans.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/maryannaevans
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MaryAnnaEvansAuthor/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mary-anna-evans-a7642810/
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/maryannaevans/
Book Bub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/mary-anna-evans
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Mary-Anna-Evans/author/B001JP9ZY2
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/12395.Mary_Anna_Evans
Thanks so much for hosting Mary Anna Evans today, with those fabulous facts!
ReplyDeleteCathie xo
The Coffee Pot Book Club
My pleasure.
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