Johnnie Alexander: The Cryptographer's Dilemma

 By Kelly Bridgewater

About the Book

Book:  The Cryptographer’s Dilemma

Author: Johnnie Alexander

Genre: Historical Christian Fiction

Release date: August, 2021

A Code Developer Uncovers a Japanese Spy Ring
 
Full of intrigue, adventure, and romance, this new series celebrates the unsung heroes—the heroines of WWII.
 
FBI cryptographer Eloise Marshall is grieving the death of her brother, who died during the attack on Pearl Harbor, when she is assigned to investigate a seemingly innocent letter about dolls. Agent Phillip Clayton is ready to enlist and head oversees when asked to work one more FBI job. A case of coded defense coordinates related to dolls should be easy, but not so when the Japanese Consulate gets involved, hearts get entangled, and Phillip goes missing. Can Eloise risk loving and losing again?

 

My Thoughts:

The Cryptographer's Dilemma by Johnnie Alexander is a World War II novel focused on studying of codes and secrets. With the heroine's experience and brainpower. She is tossed into a world of secrets and even more daring adventures than she bargained for. While the chase to find the hidden message behind the Doll letters, the heroine and hero find romance as they try to work together and work hard to solve the mystery. The World War II world sounds familiar, even a little chiche at times. Sometimes, I felt like the World War II scenery was not that important that I forgot I was chasing someone who was giving away our nations secrets through these letters. The ending scene where the climactic moment occurred was very unclimactic too. Here is the horrible elements leading up to it. Here is the ultimate showdown. Oops! Story over. Wait! Backtrack. Did I miss something? After reading the ending for the second time, I did see the moments, but it was not all it was cracked up to be. Overall, The Cryptographer's Dilemma started out pretty interesting, and I could not wait to see what happened, but as the story progressed, the stroy and moments fell flat to me.

I received a complimentary copy of The Cryptographer's Dilemma by Johnnie Alexander published by Barbour Publishing through Celebrate Lit. Tours, but the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

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About the Author

Johnnie Alexander creates characters you want to meet and imagines stories you won’t forget in a variety of genres. An award-winning, best-selling novelist, she serves on the executive boards of Serious Writer, Inc. and the Mid-South Christian Writers Conference, co-hosts Writers Chat, and interviews other inspirational authors for Novelists Unwind. Johnnie lives in Oklahoma with Griff, her happy-go-lucky collie, and Rugby, her raccoon-treeing papillon. Connect with her at www.johnnie-alexander.com and other social media sites via https://linktr.ee/johnniealexndr.

More from Johnnie

American Traitor in WWII

Not all secret messages involve substitution codes where random letters and numbers replace the original letters and numbers. Velvalee Dickinson, a doll collector who owned a doll shop on Madison Avenue in New York City, used jargon code to pass along information to the Japanese about the U.S. ships that had been damaged at Pearl Harbor.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the letters (as originally written):

The only new dolls I have are THREE LOVELY IRISH dolls. One of these three dolls is an old Fisherman with a Net over his back—another is an old woman with wood on her back and the third is a little boy….I can only think of our sick boy these days. You wrote me that you had sent a letter to Mr. Shaw, well I want to see MR. SHAW he distroyed Your letter, you know he has been Ill. His car was damaged but is being repaired now. I saw a few of his family about. They all say Mr. Shaw will be back to work soon.

Velvalee, who the FBI nicknamed The Doll Woman, wrote this letter on her Underwood typewriter. She used the return address and forged the signature of one of her regular customers, Mary Wallace of Springfield, Ohio. Then Velvalee mailed the letter to an address in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Unknown to Velvalee, the Japanese had abandoned the Buenos Aires address as a drop point. The letter was marked “return to sender.” When Mrs. Wallace received it, she turned it in to the Post Office Director in Springfield who passed it along to the FBI.

Cryptographers determined that the letter was written in jargon code. To the casual reader, the letter is about dolls. But the intended recipient would have understood it’s about much more than that.

In this example, only one of five letters given to the FBI between February and August of 1942,

cryptographers decoded the message as follows:

Old Fisherman with a Net over his back ~ refers to an aircraft carrier which has anti-torpedo nettings on its sides.

• Old woman with wood on her back ~ refers to an older battleship, one made of wood.
• A little boy plus our sick boy ~ a damaged ship.

Cryptographers believed that the words Mr. Shaw and Your were purposely capitalized and that the word distroyed was purposely misspelled to draw attention to them. Mr. Shaw referred to the USS Shaw, a destroyer (distroy + your = destroyer).

The remainder of the letter says Mr. Shaw is ill but “will be back to work soon.”

The ship was in dry dock at Pearl Harbor when the Japanese attacked. As the heroine in The Cryptographer’s Dilemma explains, “About two weeks before this letter was written, it [the USS Shaw] was undergoing repairs in San Francisco.”

In the novel, Eloise Marshall is a naval cryptographer who teams up with FBI agent Phillip Clayton, to find the person responsible for forging the signatures on the letters. Their search takes them from Washington, DC to the Springfield, Ohio, to the west coast and back again. On their journey, Eloise will confront an unexpected specter from her past and Phillip will risk his life to save hers.

Blog Stops

Life of Literature, August 25

Where Faith and Books Meet, August 25

Musings of a Sassy Bookish Mama, August 25

Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, August 26

Reflections From my Bookshelves, August 26

Library Lady’s Kid Lit, August 27

Bizwings Blog, August 27

Daysong Reflections, August 27

Texas Book-aholic, August 28

A Baker’s Perspective, August 28

Inklings and notions, August 29

Happily Managing a Household of Boys, August 29

For Him and My Family, August 30

Simple Harvest Reads, August 30 (Guest Review from Donna Cline)

Older & Smarter?, August 31

Mypreciousbitsandmusings, August 31

Aryn the Libraryan , September 1

Rebecca Tews, September 1

Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, September 2

deb’s Book Review, September 2

Locks, Hooks and Books, September 3

Blossoms and Blessings, September 3

Mary Hake, September 3

Connie’s History Classroom, September 4

A Good Book and Cup of Tea, September 4

Sodbusterliving, September 4

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, September 5

Labor Not in Vain, September 5

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, September 6

Moments, September 6

Splashes of Joy, September 6

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, September 7

Pause for Tales, September 7

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Johnnie is giving away the grand prize package of a $25 Amazon gift card and a copy of the book!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/1161a/the-cryptographer-s-dilemma-celebration-tour-giveaway

Where She Belongs: Johnnie Alexander

By Kelly Bridgewater

Synopsis:

Shelby Kincaid is ready to move on from her grief. With high hopes for the future, she longs to purchase her family's ancestral homestead so she can raise her young daughters in the only place she ever truly belonged. She plans to transform the abandoned house into the perfect home of her memories. But she'll have her work cut out for her.

AJ Sullivan never wanted the homestead. Inherited as a punishment from his grandfather, it has sat empty for fifteen years and fallen into ruin. He's glad to finally unload it. But a clean break isn't possible when he can't get the young widow Shelby off his mind.

Welcome to Misty Willow, a place that will have as great a hold over the reader as it does over its inhabitants. With writing that evokes a strong sense of place and personal history, Johnnie Alexander deftly explores the ties that bind us to home--and the irresistible forces that draw us to each other.

From Amazon

My Thoughts:

I’m really not a fan of contemporary romances, but Johnnie Alexander’s newest romance Where She Belongs kept my attention. I accepted a romance between a man and a woman with the predictable ending, which the story does. It is very formulaic in that aspect, but there is so much more to the plot. First, there are two different love triangles that involve the same men but different women. This created some spice to the plot. There is a confused father identity for a hurt child, but the father finally steps up and takes his long awaited position. Second, Alexander creates Shelby Kincaid as a young woman who has just lost her husband and now is a single mother to young girls. Shelby wants to come home and make a place where she feels comfortable and safe. Returning to Misty Willow Brook and her ancestral home, Shelby searches for meaning behind her families’ feud with an adjoining family. There is a little bit of a mystery to the meaning behind the family’s issues.  Alexander does a good job at creating a story where love and forgiveness reminds us of where we belong. As long as we are with the ones we love than that is where our home is. Alexander weaves a story where she shows the importance of family history. The romance really wasn’t that sappy; there was more to the story than just watching two people argue and then slowly fall in love. Shelby and AJ have to overcome more obstacles as the story progresses. The end is enjoyable. I recommend this book to fans of Melissa Tagg, Beth K. Vogt, Becky Wade, and Susan May Warren.  I really enjoyed watching the transformation of the characters. Alexander doesn’t mind getting right down and pour the characters’ hearts onto the page.

I received a complimentary copy of Where She Belongs from Revell Publishing and the opinions stated are all my own.

My Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Purchase Where She Belongs

If contemporary romance is your genre of your choice, do you stick with one author or just read rapidly in the genre?

Where Treasure Hides

By Kelly Bridgewater

Description (From Amazon):

From Amazon

Artist Alison Schuyler spends her time working in her family’s renowned art gallery, determined to avoid the curse that has followed the Schuyler clan from the Netherlands to America and back again. She’s certain that true love will only lead to tragedy―that is, until a chance meeting at Waterloo station brings Ian Devlin into her life. Drawn to the bold and compassionate British Army captain, Alison begins to question her fear of love as World War II breaks out, separating the two and drawing each into their own battles. While Ian fights for freedom on the battlefield, Alison works with the Dutch Underground to find a safe haven for Jewish children and priceless pieces of art alike. But safety is a luxury war does not allow. As time, war, and human will struggle to keep them apart, will Alison and Ian have the faith to fight for their love, or is it their fate to be separated forever?

My Review:

I have lately been on a binge reading historical romances set during World War II. I love everything by Sarah Sundin, Cara Putnam, Liz Tolsma, and others. When I saw the beautiful cover for Johnnie Alexander’s new book, Where Treasure Hides, I knew I had to get a copy and read it. Alexander’s novel fits right into the genre with the budding romance, the historical timeframe, and the conflict ripped from the pages of history.

The first thing that stands out to me is the setting and Alexander’s research into World War II era. Alexander did a good job at inviting the readers into the story right at the cusp of war, then trails the story through the entire process, and ending a year after the war. Even though she covers a lot of time, the story does move quite rapidly along, not fully allowing me to grasp the horror of the situation. Alexander mentions a couple of times that Jews were being taken away, but she never strays enough to cover what was going on. The story is written with dueling plotlines: first, Alison, then Ian. As the plot is told from a variety of narrators, when a certain character speaks, the dialogue fits their behavior, and the prose mimics their movements.

As for the main characters of Alison Schuyler and Ian Devlin, Alexander breathes life into them, making them memorable. Alison inherited the love of art and drawing from her father. Alexander does a great job at showing how all encompassing the viewpoint of an artist’s perspective of the world is. We view the world through different lenses and ideas for new projects appear all the time. Alison is a determined and brave woman who misses her father and mother terribly and eludes capture a number of times. As for Ian, he is a strong and heroic man who seeks out the preyed on weak and helps take them to safety without any concern of what would happen to him.

Right from the first page, Alexander introduces the romance tension and the conflict. For my taste, Ian and Alison claiming to have given their heart away at the first encounter was way too rushed. I would have liked to see it take longer to advance. I shook my head in disbelief a number of times in the early chapters. Like I mentioned early, the story doesn’t really focus on the horrible incidents occurring during World War II, so the tension revolved around Alison’s and Ian’s struggle to be together and save Alison’s family legacy with the paintings. There was really no questionable content with the violence that occurred during World War II. A pretty tame novel.

This completely original and predictable story, Where Treasure Hides, will definitely appeal to fans of Liz Tolsma and Cathy Gohlke’s book, Saving Amelie. It has the similar feel, even though Tolsma and Gohlke are more visual in their display of the horror taking place around the characters. The book was a quick read that I enjoyed, but not going to be listed as one of my favorite World War II novels. Where Treasure Hides really did not touch on the topic of God, so non-fans of CBA books could enjoy the fast moving plot.

In short, Johnnie Alexander’s unique story Where Treasure Hides features likeable characters even though the romance was much too unbelievable for me and all of the tension occurred between Ian and Alison. Not too much focus on the World War II events happening in the subplot. 

I received a complimentary copy from Tyndale Publishing and the opinions stated are all my own.