Louisa Adair, a mixed-race (Black Jamaican, British white) teen, has a job caring for Jane, a retired German opera singer and widow of a British man, in Windyedge, Scotland, during World War II. Louisa and Jane live in rooms at the same pub as Ellen McEwan, volunteer driver for the RAF. Ellen keeps her identity as a Traveller under wraps, given the prejudice and scorn Traveller's face, much like Jane downplays her German roots. Louisa, who cannot hide her heritage, must contend with racism, but not from Ellen and Jane, nor from Jamie Stuart, an old friend of Ellen's. Jamie is an RAF unit leader stationed at Windyedge. When a lone German pilot lands at Windyedge with a white flag, it thrusts Louisa, Jane, Ellen, and Jamie into a tense intelligence game. The German pilot has risked his life to deliver an enigma machine to the British to decode German messages. When he must leave again before his contact in British intelligence can get to Scotland, he hides the machine at the pub. Louisa finds it; soon she's decoding German messages, which Jane translates. Jamie uses the information to give his squad an advantage on their flights. An author's note at the end of this tightly plotted, fast-paced work expounds why the events of this story might have been possible, if not probable. The story's richly developed characters includes some recognizable from other novels, including Code Name Verity, in this story set several years before that one. (Age 12 and older)

Don’t miss Elizabeth Wein’s stunning new novel, Stateless

#1 New York Times bestselling author Elizabeth Wein delivers an exhilarating, unmissable thriller that finds three very different young adults united to decode a secret that could turn the tide of World War II
Facing a seemingly endless war, fifteen-year-old Louisa Adair wants to fight back, make a difference, do something--anything to escape the Blitz and the ghosts of her parents, who were killed by enemy action. But when she accepts a position caring for an elderly German woman in the small village of Windyedge, Scotland, it hardly seems like a meaningful contribution. Still, the war feels closer than ever in Windyedge, where Ellen McEwen, a volunteer driver with the Royal Air Force, and Jamie Beaufort-Stuart, a flight leader for the 648 Squadron, are facing a barrage of unbreakable code and enemy attacks they can't anticipate.   Their paths converge when a German pilot lands in Windyedge under mysterious circumstances and plants a key that leads Louisa to an unparalleled discovery: an Enigma machine that translates German code. Louisa, Ellen, and Jamie must work together to unravel a puzzle that could turn the tide of the war--but doing so will put them directly in the cross-hairs of the enemy.   Featuring beloved characters from Code Name Verity and The Pearl Thief, as well as a remarkable new voice, this brilliant, breathlessly plotted novel by award-winning author Elizabeth Wein is a must-read.