Book Title: THE CODEBREAKER’S DAUGHTER
Character Name: Lillian Kendall
How would you describe your family or your childhood?
In my forties now, I try to think about my family and my childhood as little as possible. To most of my acquaintances and friends, my life began when I came to Riverbank at age seventeen during the Great War.
What was your greatest talent?
All of my talents are what my daughter Dinah would call “dull”—creating and solving crossword puzzles, handling finances, keeping the home clean and organized, predicting any number of possible disasters…
Significant other?
Roger. You likely know him; everyone in our hometown does. He can talk to anyone about anything and be genuinely interested, too. I don’t know what I would do without him, despite the rocky start to our relationship.
Biggest challenge in relationships?
Letting people in. I find it difficult to trust others. However, I would argue that’s not a fault, but a strength, given how few people are, in fact, trustworthy.
Where do you live?
At the moment, I am temporarily living in Washington D.C. Just until the Friedmans…well, just to help out some old friends of mine in an emergency. Then I’ll return home to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, the only place in the country in 1944 where when someone mentions “the war,” you have to ask, “Which one?”
Do you have any enemies?
I believe I did, once, though it was rather one-sided, given that I was a penniless orphan and the man I despised a textile millionaire-turned-amateur-scientist. He died in the 30s, but if you’d met George Fabyan—really knew him, not just attended one of his parties or toured his unusual estate—you’d understand why.
How do you feel about the place where you are now? Is there something you are particularly attached to, or particularly repelled by, in this place?
City life has never been for me, and yet...the Library of Congress is a draw, I’ll admit. All those books, all that quiet. The stuff dreams are made of. Mostly, however, I’m here for my dear friend Elizebeth Freidman.
Do you have children, pets, both, or neither?
My daughter Dinah is in the capital as well, beginning a war job with…well, I suppose I’m not supposed to say. Doing—ah—secretarial work. Yes, that’s it. She’s as different from me as can be imagined, but I know she’ll thrive here.
As for pets, ever since I lived on an estate where a bear snarled in a cage on a lawn and monkeys in diapers roamed free, the appeal of having animals underfoot is lost on me.
What do you do for a living?
Now? I help my husband with his locksmithing business, keep our home, raise our daughter, occasionally freelance crossword puzzles for newspapers across the country. It’s not much, to anyone else, I suppose, but I’ve always been content.
Greatest disappointment?
I once had a chance to pursue a career in codebreaking. For many reasons, all of them good, I turned it down. It was the sensible choice at the time, but every now and then, I regret what might have been. I can’t say much more for security reasons, but let’s just say that much of our nation’s success in war can be attributed to women, working silently and brilliantly, behind the scenes.
Greatest source of joy?
Simple things. A cup of tea on a rainy day. Conversation with a dear friend by a fire. A walk on a fine spring morning. The feeling of safety, I suppose.
What do you do to entertain yourself or have fun?
My friend Margot would say that I don’t know how to have fun, but I am very good at cards, so much so that I sometimes cultivate dislike from my fellow players. I make an excellent batch of fudge. If I have a chance to attend one of Shakespeare’s plays, I’ll take it, and I also get a thrill out of alphabetizing a spice rack. (Margot may have a point, actually.)
What is your greatest personal failing, in your view?
I am not always the mother I want to be. Not that I had much of an example, but still…every time a conversation with Dinah ends badly, I wonder what I’ve done wrong.
What keeps you awake at night?
What doesn’t? It’s a mother’s way, I suppose, to worry, though perhaps I’m more inclined to that than most. Sometimes it’s as if I think if I imagine all that could go wrong, I can somehow work and plan and rally all my resources to avoid it, for myself or for those I love.
What is the most pressing problem you have at the moment?
That depends a great deal on what this meeting with the Army is going to turn out to be—they’ve called to request my help on the recommendation of my friends the Friedmans. What I could offer to a crisis of national security, I can’t imagine.
In the heart of the US capital, Dinah Kendall's role for the Office of Strategic Services isn't the thrilling espionage career she dreamed of. Instead, she spends her days crafting rumors aimed at undermining Axis morale. As Dinah navigates her duties, she uncovers a startling revelation: Her mother, Lillian, was once a codebreaker, cracking military ciphers during the Great War alongside some of the nation's most brilliant minds. The deeper Dinah dives into her mother's past, the more secrets come to light—including the heavy cost of high-stakes codebreaking.
Lillian, though resolute in her decision to avoid war work, reluctantly enters the fray when old friends in Washington, DC, seek her expertise. Both mother and daughter find themselves working behind the scenes—and working together—to support the Allied cause. But just when Dinah begins to excel in her new position, everything she's worked so hard to obtain comes crashing down around her. Caught in a web of intrigue and unsure who to trust, she must piece together the truth in time to confront the shadowy threat that could compromise the impending D-Day invasion.
A compelling World War I and World War II home front novel inspired by true stories of codebreakers and OSS agents. Courage, danger, and a mother-daughter bond interweave in this compelling historical tale that will appeal to readers of Sarah Sundin and Madeline Martin.
Historical [Baker Publishing Group, On Sale: June 17, 2025, Paperback / e-Book , ISBN: 9780764242991 / eISBN: 9781493450794]
Amy Lynn Green is a publicist by day and a freelance writer on nights and weekends. She was the 2014 winner of the Family Fiction short story contest, and her articles have been featured in Crosswalk, Focus on the Family magazines, and other faith-based publications over the past 10 years.
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