Deadly Cypher - A Guest Post, Review, & Giveaway

I'm very pleased to welcome Rosalie Billingsthorpe to Cozy Up With Kathy. You can find Rosalie on the pages of DEADLY CIPHER by Kate Parker. This book is the seventh in the Deadly series and was released last week.

Hello, I’m Rosalie Billingsthorpe, also known as the Countess of Briarcliffe. I’ve kept my title secret from my colleagues at Bletchley Park because if they knew, they would treat me differently, and I don’t want to be treated as either an anachronism or someone special.

I lost two older brothers during the Great War, and I feel very strongly that I should do my bit for England this time. I’m fluent in German, and so I’m putting my knowledge to good use at Bletchley Park as a translator along with Olivia Redmond. Olivia is a good person, clever, and brave, and I believe she’ll find the person who killed our housemate.

Thorpe and I, Thorpe is what everyone calls my husband, don’t have any children, so I’m free to spend my week in Bletchley Park and then come home on the weekend to spend time with him. Thorpe was injured in a skiing accident a year after we were married, and he has had to use a wheeled chair ever since. The current in a long line of aristocratic businessmen, his family survived the depression in good shape, which helped the people that live on the estate and nearby to weather the economic downturn. Running the estate and nearby businesses he owns keeps Thorpe busy while I’m away in Bletchley.

We live in a huge, old manor house with carefully preserved Georgian and Queen Anne furnishings. From the size alone, and our employment of a chauffeur, a cook, and a caregiver for Thorpe, told Olivia my status when she came for a weekend visit. I only wish she could have arrived in the summer when the area, and our estate, look their best with thriving crops and flowers everywhere.

I’ll miss it next summer while I’m at Bletchley Park.

Another secret I keep from Olivia and the rest of the women at our billet is that I am a talented knitter. Several of our housemates knit for our troops, but since I am expected to turn in any knitting I do to the local WI near our estate, I don’t bother to knit at Bletchley.

I’m glad I met Olivia in Deadly Cypher, and I hope I have a chance to see her again in a later story in The Deadly Series.

Deadly Cypher is the seventh book in The Deadly Series of World War II mysteries by Kate Parker.

 

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Review

 

DEADLY CYPHER by Kate Parker

The Seventh Deadly Mystery

 

It's November 1939 and although fighting hasn't truly begun, England is at war. With her new husband working in parts unknown for the army, Olivia Redmond is once again conscripted to work for Sir Malcolm. A young woman working as a codebreaker has been murdered. Livvy replaces her, taking on her work to help the country as she tries to solve the woman's murder. Was it a jealous beau or is there a traitor in the mix? 

 

The start of the war is as cold as the winter temperatures around Bletchley Park. Gone are the carefree parties of summer, now a chill has taken hold of the country and it's up to Olivia Redmond to find a traitor working right beside her.

 

DEADLY CYPHER had me absolutely captivated. To me World War II started on September 1, 1939, I was unaware that the start of the war was considered a "phony war" in England. That's one of the things I love best about the DEADLY Mystery series, I'm always learning something new. It was fascinating to read about about Bletchley Park, the women working the TypeX machines, knitting projects, and the way civilians lived at the start of World War II.

 

I've always liked Livvy and I love how she's grown and is able to stand her ground. Continually put down by her father, she's able to know when she's right and is not afraid to speak her mind, in defiance of men in authority. The mystery here was ingenious. Fully fleshed out characters inhabit the pages and I didn't know who to trust. The ultimate clue was brilliant and I caught on just as Livvy got an inkling that she couldn't quite grasp.

DEADLY CYPHER is a richly developed mystery filled with historical details, tough women, and good people giving up life as they know it in order to help their country no matter the cost.

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 Deadly Cypher: A World War II Mystery (The Deadly Series) by Kate Parker

About Deadly Cypher

Deadly Cypher: A World War II Mystery (The Deadly Series)
Historical Cozy Mystery 7th in Series
Publisher ‏ : ‎ JDP Press (August 24, 2021) Print length ‏ : ‎ 211 pages 

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.

 

Deadly Cypher will be on sale until August 30, 2021 when it will be sold at full price.

Deadly Cypher, book seven of the Deadly Series, is for fans of World War II era spy thrillers and classical cozy mysteries, of intrepid lady sleuths with spunk and smarts. No explicit cursing, sex, or violence.

Order your copy today!

 

About Kate Parker

With her love of travel, Kate Parker sets her novels overseas. Once home from her research trips and armed with hot tea and chocolate, she can be found clicking away on her keyboard, hiking the hills of central North Carolina, and spoiling her 90 pound muse puppy. She'd tell you what she did before she retired, but then she'd have to use certain skills to eliminate you. She pens stories to entertain readers who enjoy action and murder in tales about plucky heroines, quirky characters, and difficult situations in a bygone era. Her stories are sweet, as in no graphic sex, violence, or language. Her heroines remain ladylike while chasing murderers and escaping danger. Well, as ladylike as scratching, punching, and kicking can be.

Author Links: 

Website – www.KateParkerbooks.com  

Deadly Series Website - www.thedeadlyseries.com  

Facebook – www.Facebook.com/Author.Kate.Parker/  

Deadly Series Facebook - www.facebook.com/thedeadlyseries  

Twitter – https://www.bookbub.com/authors/kate-parker  

BookBub - http://www.bookbub.com/authors/kate-parker  

GoodReads – www.goodreads.com/author/show/7123001.Kate_Parker  

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