The Women of Arlington Hall by Jane Healey

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I’ve read several of Healey’s novels and was really excited to pick this one up.
The Women of Arlington Hall IS about a handful of women who are working on a top-secret project post WWII, but is mostly about Catherine Killeen, a young woman who is hired into “the Russian Division” to break the Soviet Codes.
The most intriguing parts for me were Cat and her fellow co-workers figuring out the different codes and who they were referring to. I could have done without the romance (oh no, she ends up falling for her rival from college! And did we really need to know about the lesbian love affair? No, it did NOTHING for the story and actually detracted from what was happening elsewhere.) and fashion (why do we need to know that someone is wearing a vibrant tangerine colored dress, or that Cat is finally getting out of her drab navy blue, black, and beige closet and into different colors thanks to the gals she is rooming with? Again…brings NOTHING to the storyline.)
What I appreciated the most is the fact that there were several REAL people depicted in the book. I’ve long been a big fan of Meredith Gardner and his cryptoanalysis, and the fact that he was such a key figure in this novel made my day.
I couldn’t put the book down, and finished it in a handful of hours, even if I immediately called the ending when some of Cat’s backstory was made known at the beginning.
Less romance, less fashion, and more cryptoanalysis next time!



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