I hoped to have learned more about Turing, but instead, the book told the basics of the story through the improbable vehicle of a daydreaming, self-sabotaging policeman who, deep down, wishes he hadn’t given up on math. By the end, I was rooting for the poor guy, even if he and everyone he knew was kind of a strange appendage to Turing’s story.

I’m sure if I hadn’t been familiar with Turing’s life and death, this would have been a different book, as there would have been some element of discovery. I don’t know how authors accomplish the telling a story starting at the end and still engaging the reader, but this didn’t do it.

That said, I lift my glass to Turing, a brilliant mind destroyed by fear.