The title appealed to me as Bletchley played a very important role in WW11 and has been the subject of some TV programmes.
This is a romantic suspense book. The story of young, intrepid Ena Dudley who does her part for the war effort through her top secret work at the factory and later as she seeks to find out who stole and sabotaged her work was a source of delight.

This is actually the fourth book in a series telling the story of each Dudley sister. And with that in mind, it's obvious that this one at least could be read out of order or as a stand-alone. I would be quite happy to read the stories for each of Ena's sisters who all ended up doing different work during the war.

The story starts with Ena Dudley and the other women at the engineering plant fearful during a German bombing raid on nearby Coventry. Ena's work is important and secret so that not even she is sure what her delicate component work is for. Her boss and his assistant, her friend Freda, are the ones who carry the finished work to Bletchley Park each week. Ena is eager to one day be able to accompany them. The bombing of Coventry and another of the engineering plants there give her the opportunity.

Soon, she is regularly helping to deliver her work to the Colonel at Bletchley Park, but then one fateful day, she is robbed and comes under suspicion for a time that she sabotaged her own work. Ena is bright and starts putting together the events of what happened and agrees to help trap a German spy.

Ena slowly closes in on who is sabotaging the work from her plant, gathering information and watching what’s going on with the people around her. In the meantime, Ena has an American working with British Intelligence interested in her and also the attentions of an old family friend who works at Bletchley. Ena has feelings for both, but also can't let her guard down ever with co-workers, friends, or anyone else now that she is on the hunt even while she herself may become the hunted.


The story is passive much of the time. It’s a ‘slow burn’ kind of story. The suspense was good but quite subtle and you had a couple of choices of who might be the spy. The ending was left so that there could be more stories for Ena. Good read.

Don't. Just don't. Total waste of time. Dull, predictable, wooden dialogue and inaccurate use of language.

This is book 4 in the series and perhaps if I had read the others I would have enjoyed it more.
It took a while to get into it and there seemed to be a lot of time wasted on irrelevant details. The plot sounded great but sadly the writing style and characterisation just didn't do it for me.

So with the premise of wartime espionage and intrigue, this really was slow off the mark. Considering the theme - Bletchley Park during WWII - I was looking forward to, I guess, a bit more of a spy thriller. This was Book 4 in a series of four sisters growing up during WWII. Each book was the story of one sister - this was the story of Ena, a factory girl who carried parts to Bletchley Park. There was no real need to read the three stories before, as there is enough background in this volume that it can be read as a stand-alone.

I nearly gave up on this as it took that long to get going, but did pursue till the end. Its no John Le Carre, Jack Higgins, or even Agatha Christie (The Clocks). I would probably say this would be more in line with YA fiction.

4 star plot, 3 star writing, so 3.5 stars for this mystery/thriller set in the 1940s.

Ena Dudley makes regular trips to Bletchley Park on the 9.45 train taking vital equipment with her. On one such trip she is robbed, and she and the people she works with fall under suspicion.

I have a passion for historical mysteries. Unfortunately The 9.45 to Bletchley failed to engage me. I thought the plot had promise, but the writing let it down. There was far too much irrelevant detail, and the characters never came alive for me.

I realise this is #4 in a series, but I don't believe that reading the previous books would have increased my enjoyment.

Thank you to Madalyn Morgan via Netgalley for providing me with a digital copy of The 9.45 to Bletchley for review. All opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own.