The Riddle of the Labyrinth

The Riddle of the Labyrinth: the quest to crack an ancient code

by Margalit Fox

Harper Collins, 2013

In 1900, archeologist Arthur Evans discovered a series of tablets on the island of Crete. The tablets dated from 1450 BCE, almost 700 years before the Greek alphabet was developed. The tablets were written in an unknown script and in an unknown language, referred to as Linear B. The Riddle of the Labyrinth tells the story of how Linear B was decoded, and the contributions of the three major players, Arthur Evans, Alice Kober and Michael Ventris. The process took 53 years. The work was done before computers were available to private citizens and when paper was in such sort supply that Kober had to cut her own index cards from church flyers and greeting cards. 

From reading this book, I learned that languages may be logographic where each character depicts an idea (Chinese), or syllabic where each symbol refers to a syllable (Japanese kana script) or phonetic where each character stands for a sound. “By some estimates, only 15 percent of the roughly six thousand languages spoken around the globe have written forms.” 

I recommend this book for anyone who is interested in codes, the development of language or history.

Code Name Verity

Code Name Verity

by Elizabeth Wein

Hyperion, 2012

This is easily the most extraordinary book I’ve read this year. And yet it’s difficult to write about it without giving the story away, and I want everyone to experience it as I did, fresh and without bias.

Code Name Verity is the story of two young women during WWII. One was a pilot, the other a spy, and they were best friends. The spy was captured by the Gestapo. While this book is not overly graphic, it does not pull punches. The Nazis are sadistic torturers and yet they are fully developed characters with secret weaknesses, love for their children and personal dreams. The first half of the book is told by Verity, the spy, and Kitty Hawk, the pilot, tells the remainder. These characters remain in my thoughts.

This is a book for anyone with an interest in Scheherazade, Peter Pan, unreliable narrators or simply fine writing.

Spy Pigeon

Even though my spy novel is dead in the water, I still enjoy reading books and articles about espionage. During World War II, the Allies used pigeons to take aerial photographs (miniature aluminum cameras were strapped to the birds’ chests) and to carry messages. Pigeons fly home, so each bird could only be used for one-way transmission. Pigeons in cages equipped with small parachutes were dropped behind enemy lines where resistance fighters tied messages to their legs and sent them back.

Recently, the skeleton of a pigeon was found in an unused chimney in Britain. Apparently this tiny agent had stopped to rest and was overcome by fumes. The tube containing the encoded message is still intact and has been sent to Bletchley Park for deciphering. I hope they figure out what it says.   

More Spy Stuff:

I’m currently reading Code Name Verity by Elizabeth Wein, and have marveled at it so far. I may write more about this book when I finish. 

For spies gone bad, Spying In America by Michael J. Sulick sounds like a well-researched and interesting non-fiction work.

Tracking Devices Revisited

I received a request for more information about micro tracking devices. Unfortunately, I don’t have many new facts. Commercially available tracing devices seem to be of two varieties: 1) small boxes equipped with magnets for attachment to cars and 2) collar tags designed to locate roaming pets. The grain-of-rice-sizedmicrochips that are injected under animals’ skin are used to identify lost pets once they are found. They need to be scanned at close range, and do not have a global positioning system (GPS) that could transmit the animal’s location. I read a spy novel in which the hero swallowed an encapsulated GPS before he was taken by the enemy. The book was fiction. I can’t verify whether the device was as well. 

The limitation on size reduction is probably the battery. The device swallowed by the spy wouldn’t have to transmit very long, because (without getting into gastrointestinal physiology) it wouldn’t stay with him. Pet collar and car tracking devices are larger because it is inconvenient to change batteries frequently.

Tracking Devices

I’ve been researching spy gear for my WIP with the understanding that products available on the internet may be less sophisticated than models used by real secret service organizations. So far, I’ve gleaned that it’s easy to make tiny cameras and listening devices and hide them in ingenious places. Making a micro-tracking device is more difficult, probably because of the size of the battery. 

The Spark Nano (link removed) is about 2”x3” and intended for use in a vehicle. The smallest tracking devices I’ve found are designed for pet collars.  

The BBC production called Spooks in the UK and MI5 in the US showed tracking devices about 1”x1/4” that could be attached to a lapel or collar. They may exist, but I haven’t found them on the internet. I’ve read (and I can’t remember the book) about tracking devices that were minuscule adhesive discs. I suspect it was a fantasy novel.

The Spy Museum

I had a great time at The Spy Museum in Washington DC! I studied each display and read every plaque, but have no photographs because cameras are not allowed inside. The tour starts with basic surveillance techniques, like dead drops and spotting hidden cameras. There is an excellent video on how to pick a lock, and a wonderful display of recording devices. Micro-technology has certainly improved over the years.

The section on codes is well-done, and I got to see an Enigma machine. I would have liked to see a diagram of the scrambling circuitry, but perhaps that is too technical for the target audience. The historical rooms are fascinating, and I’m eager to read more about the spies of the American Revolution and Civil War. The story of the tunnel under the Berlin Wall is also something that I’ll have to investigate further.

Even though I spent four hours at the museum, I could easily go back and learn more. After some internal debate, I decided not to buy a SPY GIRL T-shirt. It would blow my cover.

The Company We Keep

The Company We Keep: a husband-and-wife true-life spy story

by Robert Baer and Dayna Baer

Crown Publishers, 2011

If you want to know how CIA operatives spend their days, read this book.



I have more spy stuff coming. Several more espionage-related books are on my to-read list. On Friday, I’ll visit the Spy Museum in Washington DC.

Another Spy Book Recommendation

Original Sin: a Sally Sin adventure

by Beth McMullen

Hyperion, to be released July 12, 2011


Shelf Awareness is a daily electronic newsletter about the book trade that features terrific advertisements for new books. A few months back, I saw an ad for Original Sin: a Sally Sin Adventure. I noticed with glee it was a spy book featuring a female operative. Then I saw, “Click here to win a free ARE.” I followed the instructions, thinking I’d never win. A few weeks later, a package came in the mail.

The book is a totally enjoyable read especially for readers who enjoy spy novels and are parents. My two sentence summary:

Raising a toddler is a tough job; so is being a spy. Sally Sin is forced to multi-task.

It’s due out in July.

Two Great Spy Books

Agent Zigzag and Operation Mincemeat by Ben Macintyre are published by Random House.

Ben Macintyre is a meticulous historian and a fine storyteller. In Agent Zigzag, he relates the story of Eddie Chapman, a double agent and colorful character who schemed against the Nazis in WWII and yet was awarded the Iron Cross.

Operation Mincemeat tells how the Allies deceived German forces before the invasion of Sicily by creating a fictional man who washed up dead on the shores of Spain with a briefcase full of erroneous documents.

When I studied history in school, it was mostly facts and propaganda. The story and its characters were missing entirely. After reading these books, The Code Book and The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and watching Foyle’s War, I’m finally learning something about WWII.

Spy Stuff

The Rachel Maddow Show helped me out with my series about cool spy stuff in the news. The CIA has recently declassified methods for preparing and detecting invisible ink that were used in WWI. I’m still enough of a chemist to want to try these things.

Civil War Code

The Washington Post ran a fascinating article on a newly deciphered Civil War message. Believe it or not, the Museum of the Confederacy had this message in a bottle since 1896, and it remained unopened, un-deciphered and unread until collections manager Catherine M. Wright decided to investigate. The other thing that amazed me was retired CIA code breaker, David Gaddy and Navy cryptologist Cmdr. John B. Hunter, solved the code by brain, not by computer. It goes to show that spies like to play as much as anybody.

The description of the Vigenere Cipher isn’t completely clear in the article. A Vigenere Cipher is not a simple substitution or Caesar cipher (a frame shift). A Vigenere Cipher is a series of shifts based on a code word or key. This makes decoding the message by frequency analysis much more complicated because the most common letter is not necessarily E. Frequency analysis is how Sherlock Holmes decoded messages in “The Adventure of the Dancing Men.”

I loved finding out about this newly deciphered code. I wish the picture of the message was more legible and that they’d told us what the key was.

Thanks to Debbie Diesen for the link.

A Sure Sign of Fall

When close to 40,000 undergraduates descend on our community, they can’t help bringing a few germs along with their mini-fridges and flat-screen TVs. It’s my turn for the Students Are Back Head Cold, and consequently my new project isn’t exactly zipping along. I do have two book recommendations, though.

Suspect

by Kristin Wolden Nitz

Peachtree Publishers, 2010

While sifting through clues and red herrings, I learned much about writing and how to construct a riveting plot.

Fair Game

by Valerie Plame Wilson

Simon & Schuster, 2007

I read this book as research for my next project, but since this is not a political blog, I won’t say much. However, if you believe in the Bill of Rights, you may find this book disheartening. (The Fair Game movie is coming out this year.)

The Code Book

The Code Book

By Simon Singh

Doubleday, 1999 (The cover design is from the updated 2001 edition which was not available from my library.)

I discovered this book on the recommended reading list in Mysterious Messages. Simon Singh knows how to tell a good story and provides fascinating accounts of the people who made encryption history. Code making and breaking are fundamental to diplomacy and warfare, so the story of secrecy explains history, provides insight to the present, and hints at the future.
 
Who would enjoy this book?
Anyone who is interested in WWI and WWII
Anyone who is curious about ancient Egyptian and Minoan cultures
Anyone who has wondered how Internet transactions can be secure
Anyone who likes puzzles
 
Do you have to be a math geek to like this book?
Serious math geeks would hardly count me among their numbers, yet I managed to keep neck and neck with the calculations. The amount of math required to understand this book depends on whether the reader is willing to accept concepts as written, or feels compelled to check the work. (I belong to the second group.)
 
Simon Singh also wrote an edition for teen readers, The Code Book: how to make it, break it, hack it, crack it. (Delacorte Press, 2001).