Books Tell You Why, Inc.

A handsome first edition/first printing in Fine condition in a Very Good+ dust-jacket that is scuffed and has a yellow dot sticker on the front.

In Hornet's Nest, Cornwell weaves together the stories of three women who were connected by their husbands and their husbands' work as intelligence officers in the British Army during World War II. The women's stories are intersecting, and their fates are inextricably linked. In 1942, the year that Hornet's Nest takes place, the British Army was beset by a string of devastating defeats, culminating in the fall of Singapore. The officers in charge of the Army's intelligence operations were desperate for a solution and turned to the unconventional methods of codebreaking. The three women in Hornet's Nest are central to this story. One is the wife of an officer who is struggling to keep his family alive while he is away at war; the second is the wife of a codebreaker who is trying to keep her family safe; and the third is the wife of a officer who is trying to keep his family safe while he is trying to keep the Army's codebreaking; 8vo; 377 pages.