Andrew Smith's Reviews > Enigma

I’ve got to be honest, I was really disappointed by the audio version of this book. My issues are threefold:

1. In my naivety I’d assumed the story was going to centre on Alan Turing and his work breaking codes during WWII at Bletchley Park. I hoped it would be the whole big story alive for me as I only really knew the very basics. After all, that’s what Robert Harris does, isn’t it, take real life events and add a narrative around them? But in fact, this was nothing of the sort, instead it’s was a rather insignificant fictional tale about a spy and a man who suspects that something odd is going on at BP. The only link to Turing (his name was only mentioned once - in passing - throughout the whole piece) is really the setting for the story and some background work that’s going on. The foreground story here is unconvincing and not even particularly interesting. But my bad, I suppose, as I didn’t read the blurb (I seldom do) and thus went into this one blind.

2. I usually don’t listen to abridged versions. In fact, I try to avoid them at all costs. But I couldn’t track down an unabridged version (perhaps there isn’t one) and I really wanted the immersive experience of listening to it, it’s how I imbibe most of my non-fiction (or close to non-fiction). Unfortunately, this was everything I hate about abridged versions. It was jumpy and confusing, and the character development was painfully under done.

3. The reader of this book was able enough but, perhaps because the story demanded it, the dialogue throughout was delivered in a plummy posh English accent and seemed to feature mostly inconsequential and rather camp banter between the various protagonists. It neither suited my ear nor piqued my interest. In fact, in the end, I got rather lost in the hectic scrambling around and the rather confusing chatter concerning the background code breakthrough.

I’ve saved it from a one-star rating because I did listen to it all the way through - rather hoping that something interesting would happen eventually. It never did, so two stars it is.