The Cryptographer’s Dilemma by Johnnie Alexander

The Cryptographer’s Dilemma
by Johnnie Alexander

ISBN-13: 9781643529516
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Barbour Fiction
Released: August 1st 2021

Source: ebook review copy from the publisher through NetGalley.

Book Description, Modified from Goodreads:
Navy 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. FBI Agent Phillip Clayton is ready to enlist and head oversees when asked to work one more FBI job. A case of coded navy intel using jargon code related to dolls should be easy, but not so when hearts get entangled. Can Eloise risk loving and losing again?


My Review:
The Cryptographer’s Dilemma is a Christian romance set in 1942 in America. There was a mystery, but more scenes focused on Eloise or Philip thinking about their personal troubles than on solving who the traitor was. The author often had someone think about what happened rather than show events, especially in the first half of the story. These were significant events, like apparently Eloise's and Philip's opinion of each other changed from "unpleasant person" to admiration during a briefly summarized train ride. It was a sudden change from mildly negative feelings to fighting romantic attraction, and I'm not really sure why they were attracted. For that matter, I never understood why an invaluable cryptographer was quickly trained as an FBI agent and sent to interview people when other people (with more experience) could have done that job.

Eloise's past was a secret for half of the story. There's a scene where she saw a newspaper photograph and got extremely upset for pages, and we have absolutely no idea why. It's hard to empathize when I have no idea why she's upset. Many chapters (20% of the book) passed with no more information about why she's upset or what was in the picture. At least with Philip, we know about the event that had him upset. I didn't really understand him, though. He felt guilty that a criminal was facing the death sentence because of his testimony since even that man is made in the image of God. However, he's determined to go to the war front, and it never occurred to him that he might feel guilty about personally killing the enemy.

The mystery was basically talking to a few doll collectors in an attempt to understand who could have written the coded messages. It didn't take Eloise long to solve the code. Scenes from the traitor's point of view explained her motives and actions, so it's not a puzzle for the reader to solve. At the end, Eloise threw away common sense (though not her gun) when she charged in before the FBI to save her beloved stranger...er, Phillip. And, of course, they paused in the middle of a time sensitive, danger-filled moment to have their first kiss. So it had a lot of my pet peeves. There was no sex or bad language.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


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