An enjoyable read, easy going with a very brave heroine. Set during WW2 we have the making of an intelligent, bold and dedicated Nancy serving her country. Traitors and spies crop up when least expected, and relationships are built by unlikely friendships. Deborah Swift has written an engaging novel and provided a backdrop to the war of survival and not least love.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers Harper Collins for this advance copy.

Excellent book, loved it all. Kept me intrigued all the way through. A must read for all ww11 readers.

I am not familiar with Deborah Swift, but I have read many novels based in WW2, and I can honestly say that this is one of the best of that genre.

Although, it started off very cliched in rural Scotland, with a cad of a fiancé and a naïve young woman. Whilst I was not expecting it to improve, it did and I found myself wishing we could have had more of feisty Nancy in the Netherlands but that is possibly for the sequel.

This is a tough novel showing the horrors of war, and there are many casualties along the way, and I found myself reflecting on some of the deaths long after I finished the book.
A four star read.

This is my first book by Deborah Swift and what a great and amazing introduction into her books, I was not left disappointed. The Silk Code had me absolutely hooked from the first page. A great historical read based on the true story of the Englandspiel during WW2. A great storyline full of bravery, trust, love, survival, betrayal and determination. I am really looking forward to following where these characters go. Highly recommended 5 star read.

I would like to thank HQ, NetGalley and the author for the opportunity to read this complimentary copy for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

What a really enjoyable book this was to read. Characters that you could get into and a storyline that kept you hooked wanting to read on to find out what happened next - my sign of a good book!

An excellent book on world war 2history.I would recommend reading this book to anyone interested in learning about the resistance in Holland and how brutal the war was in living through these momentous times.

Deborah Swift's latest is set in World War II. Life in London during the Blitz is wonderfully evoked, with trips to a Lyons Corner House where you eat Shepherd’s Pies that are mainly potato and beetroot is everywhere. Normal life continues between air raid warnings. It’s spot on.

I can hardly mention the plot. It starts with the heroine, Nancy, being betrayed by her fiancé practically on the eve of their wedding. She flees her quiet life in Scotland to move to London where she gets a job in the offices where her brother works. When she applies, she has no idea that she will be a decoder with the Special Operations Executive – part of the lifeline supporting field agents in occupied Europe.

She soon finds herself falling for a young man who has arrived to shake up the way the SOE codes its messages. So far, so clichéd (and the opening pages with the cad in Scotland did leave me worrying that the book might all be a bit of a cliché). But suddenly the plot kicks into gear with twists and turns that continue throughout the book. Infuriatingly, as a reviewer, I can’t say anything about any of them because any clue as to what is coming will spoil the story. (The title is a spoiler in itself, which annoyed me. I bet that was the publisher’s choice and not the author’s.)

What I can say is that the romantic betrayal that the story starts with is just the first of many betrayals we are going to discover. This is a story about loyalty and betrayal: betrayal because of cowardice or betrayal because you have to sacrifice your friends for your country. It reminds us that not that long ago London was full of people with secrets, determined that no one should ever learn what they were doing for their country – or for the enemy.

Swift writes about the experience of agents in the field and how they can (or more often can’t) survive in a world where German troops are everywhere and where nobody can be trusted. There are scenes of considerable violence. Swift is not afraid to depict the horror of killing with bare hands or whatever tools are available. One agent kills someone by hitting them with a spade and the reality of that killing and how it feels to murder someone so up close and personal is chillingly spelled out.

Whatever you do, don’t get attached to anyone. The body count is high and the human costs of Occupation are graphically captured. Usually you can reassure yourself that it will all come well at the end, but I kept turning the pages worrying about who would die next.

The book ends without the irritating cliff hanger that too many authors put at the end of the first book in what is clearly going to be a series. (OK, someone survives. But I’m not telling you who.) The fact that there will be a Book Two leaves the end of The Silk Code mildly anticlimactic. There is still a war. There will be more deaths. But briefly, until the next book starts, we are allowed an interlude of something almost like peace.

This is a brilliant book, one of Swift’s best. I can’t wait for the next one.

The year is 1943 and Nancy finds herself on her way to England from Scotland to start over after a bad breakup. She has a job set up through her brother to help with the war effort, but little does she know the position that awaits her will change her life in every way imaginable. Before she knows it, she’s deciphering code and communicating with agents in the field - but something is amiss. Her trainer, Tom Lockwood, also suspects something is off. There’s a traitor amongst those at Baker Street. But who is it? Is it Nancy? Tom? Nancy’s brother? Their boss?

I loved the characters that author Deborah Swift crafted. I fell in love with Nancy’s bravery, Tom’s determination and the many, many characters along the way that helped piece the puzzle together. It was well written and a good mix of historical fiction and mystery. I enjoyed learning the historical facts and I learned of things that I didn’t know before about “Englandspiel” and the Dutch Resistance.

A truly moving and breath-taking story of intrigue and betrayal.

It's Britain in 1943 and war is raging. Nancy Callaghan moves from Scotland to England in an attempt to forget her two-timing fiancé, and to do her part for the war effort. She meets with her brother who has arranged a secretarial job for her, however her aptitude for languages mean that she is soon recruited as a code-breaker for the SOE. She is soon involved in decrypting ‘indecipherables’ – scrambled messages from agents in the field.

Up to her eyes in secrets and lies, she finds herself drawn closer to Tom Lockwood, a quiet codebreaking genius. Both soon come to realise SOE and its agents have been compromised, and that there's a traitor in the midst.

The story soon moves ahead at a rate of knots and the reader is immersed in a story full of suspicion, betrayal and some romance. Deborah Swift has expertly captured all of the emotion and atmosphere that must have existed at that time, within the closeted corridors of Britain's espionage community. Not knowing who to trust, fearful of letting the enemy in on some vital facet of the war effort, the story plays out against the real-life background of ‘Englandspiel’, The English Game operated by the Nazis.

Nancy's experiences both in Britain and later across Europe skilfully paint a picture of life during WW2, and she pulls no punches. Fifth columnists, spies, traitors and more are all represented across several story threads which call on real-life events and people. I've read more than a few SOE-based novels recently and this is up there with the best of them. I'd feared it would be a romance novel first and an espionage one second, but not so, and the book will appeal to fans of several genres. The research into how SOE operated is top-notch.

I really did race to finish this book, such was the level of anticipation it raised in me. I'm certain other readers will feel the same. Heartily recommended.

An excellent war time adventure/romance. Nancy is running away from a failed engagement when she joins SOE as a wireless decoder. She meets Tom Lockwood and is drawn to him but her brother makes her suspect him as a spy. When she is caught looking for evidence of his activities she accepts the challenge to train to go over to Holland as part of the resistance. Spies, double agents, secret war time manoeuvres, all can be found in this fast paced, gripping story. A great read.

The Silk Code is full of deception, espionage and romance that continue to surprise at every twist and turn. Swift expertly crafts a narrative that continually questions who is trustworthy, who the enemy is and whether a double agent is lurking in the heart of the SOE (Special Operations Executive). This novel is fast-paced and gripping with the the distinct opposites of locations of London and Nazi-occupied Holland coupled with chilling and action intense scenes.

The writing-style is easy to read and encouraged me to continue reading with every chapter pulling the reader deeper into the inner-workings of the British Union of Fascists, Nancy's work in the SOE and Tom 's investigations to discover who and how the Dutch lines have become compromised. Swift creates several sub-plots to propel the novel's pace with Nancy's isolation in Nazi-occupied Holland and Neil and Tom's unlikely alliance in London.

I think this is definitely a book for fans of historical fiction, those interested in the second world war and espionage. I wouldn't usually choose a book set in the second world war, but this had me on the edge of my seat and was captivated the story and characters - with each chapter I desired to read on to discover what was next.

I have been fascinated by the role female SOE agents performed in WW2 since meeting a lady in the 1980s who had worked for the service. This is a competent and we'll researched novel.

The Silk Code is a World War Two espionage story and features English agents sent to Holland.

Nancy leaves her Scottish home and a cheating fiancé to find work in London. She lodges with her brother and attends an interview for secretarial work. However, she discovers that the job is in the decoding department of the Special Operations Executive in Baker Street.

Tom Lockwood is on a mission to find new ways for secret agents in the field to send coded messages. He gets involved with the Dutch agents and is concerned that the Germans have infiltrated the Dutch Resistance.

Secrets, undercover activities and spying are central to this story, which takes place mainly in London and Holland and it is based on a true story of ‘Englandspiel’, a successful counterintelligence operation run by the Abwehr during the war. Nancy finds herself at the heart of finding the mole who is sending agents to their deaths.
I liked the Dutch setting and the problematic situation for the agents. The story tripped along at a good pace and there was plenty to keep me interested.

Really enjoyed this book and will look out for more of this author.
This is a spy romance set in ww2 with spies being sent all over the world and ordinary people deciphering their messages from codes. But some of the people are not what or who they seem
Fantastic read

So, I had planned to make a start on this book...just to get a feel for it. However, once I had read a few pages, I couldn't stop. I had only a superficial understanding of Englandspiel and had no idea how deeply rooted it was in the most important government departments during World War II. Reading this book was like being on a runaway train. As always, the depth of research this author does is obvious but she makes it so easily absorbable with characters you either hate or love and a plot that just keeps the pages turning.

These women that signed up as agents for the SOE deserve to be recognized in the history books taught in school. They were from all walks of life...brilliant, brave, and loyal, knowing that their estimated life expectancy once dropped behind enemy lines was only 6 weeks! I hope that there is another book in the works with at least a couple of my favorite characters. I didn't get much accomplished today but it was totally worth it.

It’s 1943 and after finding out her fiancé was cheating on her with her best friend, Nancy Callaghan decides she needs to do something for the war effort, and heads to London, where she lands a job in a government department. Determined not to get involved when she meets Tom Lockwood, she can’t help her feelings for him, especially when she finds herself involved in looking for a traitor.

Based on a true story, this is an interesting read, with Nancy being drawn in to both the Coding world of WWII and falling for Tom Lockwood. Moving in to her brother Neil’s flat, she finds herself torn between the two men, especially when Neil takes a dislike to Tom, and she can’t work out why. We get a brief idea of how the SOE trained their agents, and the dangers they faced, knowing that the average life span when on enemy soil was a scant 6 weeks. A lot seems to have been written about this era recently, and the brave people who endured such hardships, whether it was the people in the UK sending agents to almost certain death, the partisans that helped them, and the agents themselves. This is a nice addition to the genre, and I liked the fact that some of the characters were real people,. I felt there could have been a bit more depth to the backgrounds of some of them but it was a nice easy read. 3 1/2⭐️

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.