The Roman Enigma

The acclaimed novel of spies, code-breaking, and intrigue in World War II Italy, by bestselling author Walter Murphy ("The Vicar of Christ," "Upon This Rock"), is now a convenient ebook. Previously published by Macmillan and Dell, this book is now presented in a quality digital edition, including active Contents and proper formatting.


Italy: 1943. 

The Target: Enigma, the German's bafflingly complex enciphering machine. Its code was unbreakable until ULTRA put the key to winning the war in Allied hands. 


The Plan: A devious double-cross to convince the Germans that their cipher is still secure. Making full use of powerful Vatican connections, it entails sending an agent into Nazi-occupied Rome ... and making sure he is caught. 


The Agent: Roberto Rovere, a young Italian-American OSS agent. The Allies have cold-bloodedly plotted every detail of his capture and death except one: the Germans want him to escape, alive.


"What raises this novel above many another World War II yarn is the way Murphy combines political realism and religious idealism to question the deepest ideology of them all, a blind nationalism that justifies all excess in the name of the greater good."

--The Washington Post


"Fascinating and important."

--Andrew M. Greeley, author of 'The Cardinal Sins'


WALTER F. MURPHY taught constitutional law to generations of students at Princeton, where he held the chair of McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence first occupied by Woodrow Wilson. Born in Charleston, Murphy served as a Marine in Korea and won a Distinguished Service Cross and a Purple Cross, eventually retiring with the rank of colonel. He graduated from Notre Dame and George Washington University, and earned a PhD in political science from the University of Chicago. His novels include the New York Times bestseller 'The Vicar of Christ,' which won the Chicago Foundation for Literature Award and was preceded by his unprecedented research in Vatican archives and access to church and papal sources.