PopCo By Scarlett Thomas
I bought this book on a whim a few weeks ago, and I am so glad I did!
From Watersones Website:
Alice Butler has been receiving some odd messages - all anonymous, all written in code. Are they from someone at PopCo, the profit-hungry corporation she works for? Or from Alice's long lost father? Or has someone else been on her trail? The solution, she is sure, will involve the code-breaking skills she learned from her grandparents and the key she's been wearing round her neck since she was ten. "PopCo" is a grown-up adventure of family secrets, puzzles, big business and the power of numbers.
It was the code breaking element that attracted me to the book, and I wasn't disappointed. The narrative explains some concepts of cryptography in a very accessible way.
There are also some wonderful flash back passages as Alice recalls her childhood with her grandparents in the 1980s, and the scenes at school are hysterical. Anyone who was at school then will identify immediately with her worries and pressures from her peer group.
The story has a couple of main threads running through it, which are nicely resolved at the end. Its an easy read, which moves along at a good pace, and the code breaking information keeps it from being a more run of the mill story about a girl who finds her role in life.
8/10