Cracking codes

Oh boy! Where was this book when I was a lad? I would have eaten it up entirely. I was always big on codes, and did my share of counting letters, learning weird alphabets and writing my secret thoughts in my diary so that only I could read them.

I don’t have any secrets anymore, certainly not from members of my family, but I’ve maintained the interest. Two of the most treasured books on my bookshelf are Applied Cryptography
and Between Silk and Cyanide: A Codemaker’s War, 1941-1945.

This book has it all and cryptic crosswords. There’s a short historical and introductory section giving the background to codes and cryptograms, outlining ways of making and breaking them, and then we get into the meat of the action. There are coded puzzles to be solved. Some easy, some more challenging. Hints are provided for those having difficulty, and if you are really, totally stuck, the solutions are right at the end.

But it’s not just a list of crypto puzzles. There’s three real life and little-known conspiracy stories for the reader to work out, using the puzzles that make up the rest of the book.

I’d like to say that there’s hours of fun in this book, but there’s not. Days and weeks of fun for a grown-up kid.

Highly recommended for the clever kids. Of all ages.