...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!

The Book Cipher

176 statements
33 feature instances
29 referencing feature instances

The Book Cipher	type	FeatureClass
The Book Cipher	label	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher	page	TheBookCipher
The Book Cipher	comment	This is an old and basic cipher. John Doe has a copy of a book. Richard Roe has an identical copy of the same book, which he can use to decipher John's coded messages and code his own replies. The messages are written out in groups of numbers. Either the first number is a page, the second number a line on the page, and the third number a word inside that line, or it can also be just the page number and word number, if you want to make it easy. The Ottendorf Cipher is a specific variant that uses Page, Word, and then the letter inside that word, which lets you encode words that aren't found within the text - like, say, the address of a meeting place. Big and well-known books make better sources as you have more words to choose from (thus The Bible is often the source), and no one will react if you're walking around with a pocket version of The Da Vinci Code. Relatedly, if you are unfortunate enough to lose your copy, a well-known book will be easier to replace without raising eyebrows, though some books are slightly different from edition to edition, so you need to make certain to get the right one (This also applies to the Bible, as the New Testament is a translation of a collection of Latin and Latin-translated Greek documents, and the Old Testament is a translation of a Latin translation of a collection of Hebrew documents. Better make certain you specify which version you want, as exact word choice can vary considerably between versions even if the general meaning of any given verse stays roughly the same). If you're walking around with an 1824 edition of a book, or asking specifically to buy a copy of the fourth printing of the second edition of something... people may well get suspicious (especially the detective who's after you). Of course, using a widely available book also makes it easier for other people to read your messages, should they be intercepted, and while the book itself may be utterly innocuous, sending a letter that is merely a long list of numbers is an unmistakeable indication that you are communicating in code. In some video games, solving such a code using an external manual is part of its Copy Protection.
The Book Cipher	fetched	2024-04-06T19:32:17Z
The Book Cipher	parsed	2024-04-06T19:32:17Z
The Book Cipher	processingComment	Dropped link to PublicSecretMessage: Not an Item - FEATURE
The Book Cipher	processingComment	Dropped link to SdrawkcabName: Not an Item - FEATURE
The Book Cipher	processingComment	Dropped link to SubvertedTrope: Not an Item - CAT
The Book Cipher	processingComment	Dropped link to VictimOfTheWeek: Not an Item - FEATURE
The Book Cipher	isPartOf	DBTropes
The Book Cipher / int_16fc4335	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_16fc4335	comment	Heralds of Valdemar: At one point in the Collegium Chronicles, a team of foreign spies/assassins gets their orders via a book code using a book of poetry as the key. Unfortunately, when they have to flee in a hurry, they lose the book, and since it's from their homeland they can't replace it in Haven.
The Book Cipher / int_16fc4335	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_16fc4335	featureConfidence	1.0
Heralds of Valdemar	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_16fc4335
The Book Cipher / int_27faf621	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_27faf621	comment	One episode of Cyberchase used this, using a cookbook with the page-line-word code. Once the main characters find out that Hacker has a copy of the book and is using it to decode their messages (with no real explanation as to how he figured out what kind of code they were using and what book was the key), they quickly come up with a new code. Clueless Hacker still thinks the code is the same when he intercepts the new message.
The Book Cipher / int_27faf621	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_27faf621	featureConfidence	1.0
Cyberchase	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_27faf621
The Book Cipher / int_29a0db82	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_29a0db82	comment	Used in The Adventures of Good Soldier Svejk in the World War I when the officers are briefed on the newest cipher method, which apparently is a variant of the book cipher based upon the pages 160 and 161 of a German novel "Die SÃ¼nden der VÃ¤ter". However, the book used is a novel in two volumes and the protagonist, when ordered to deliver them to the battalion officers, was not informed that it was the second part which was needed and delivered the first tomes only, keeping the second volumes in storage, believing that 'they gentlemen officers would surely like to read the novel in the proper order, as anyone else, and after they had read the first part they'd be issued with the second part'. Hilarity ensued during the briefing, when only (overly ambitious yet generally incompetent) officer-cadet Biegler was brave enough to point out that the example given does not make any sense, while other officers just kept calm and quietly assumed that their regimental colonel finally went completely bananas and would be soon promoted to the war ministry.
The Book Cipher / int_29a0db82	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_29a0db82	featureConfidence	1.0
The Good Soldier Å vejk	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_29a0db82
The Book Cipher / int_2ba48a26	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_2ba48a26	comment	Castle: In the episode "Tick, Tick, Tick..." a serial killer taunts police with a message encoded in what Castle figures out is a book cypher, based on his latest Nikki Heat novel.
The Book Cipher / int_2ba48a26	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_2ba48a26	featureConfidence	1.0
Castle (2009)	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_2ba48a26
The Book Cipher / int_30a5ebfd	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_30a5ebfd	comment	In Naruto, Jiraiya uses a book cipher referring to his own novels to convey information about Pain.
The Book Cipher / int_30a5ebfd	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_30a5ebfd	featureConfidence	1.0
Naruto (Manga)	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_30a5ebfd
The Book Cipher / int_336a5711	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_336a5711	comment	In the Season 2 finale of BBC's Luther, the numbers in a notebook is revealed to be this. This gives the police an Oh, Crap! moment when the suspect's Room Full of Crazy turns out to be full of books. But as any book used must not only be the same title, but also the same edition, Luther realises this collection of secondhand books can't be the one used for the cipher. It's a Gideon's bible that the killers could find in any hotel room if needed.
The Book Cipher / int_336a5711	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_336a5711	featureConfidence	1.0
Luther	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_336a5711
The Book Cipher / int_3a1f98d3	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_3a1f98d3	comment	This is described and used in The Curse of Chalion by Lois McMaster Bujold. In a culture in which printing is a relatively recent invention, there aren't many true duplicates, but the characters manage to turn up identical copies of a heavy theological tome.
The Book Cipher / int_3a1f98d3	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_3a1f98d3	featureConfidence	1.0
TheCurseOfChalion	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_3a1f98d3
The Book Cipher / int_3b782317	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_3b782317	comment	Seventeen Moments of Spring: Stirlitz, a Soviet Deep Cover Agent in Nazi Germany in the closing months of World War II, uses one of these to decode messages sent from Moscow.
The Book Cipher / int_3b782317	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_3b782317	featureConfidence	1.0
Seventeen Moments of Spring	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_3b782317
The Book Cipher / int_3e9c95a2	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_3e9c95a2	comment	Sharpe: A book cipher plays an important role in the TV version of Sharpe's Sword. The key text is Voltaire's Candide.
The Book Cipher / int_3e9c95a2	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_3e9c95a2	featureConfidence	1.0
Sharpe	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_3e9c95a2
The Book Cipher / int_4b2d7e6c	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_4b2d7e6c	comment	In The Devil-Doll, Levonde gets a threatening message to Matin this way. Although it's not much of a cipher, since Matin doesn't know the code, so Levonde writes out each Bible verse and word for him to look up.
The Book Cipher / int_4b2d7e6c	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_4b2d7e6c	featureConfidence	1.0
The Devil-Doll	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_4b2d7e6c
The Book Cipher / int_5f205391	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_5f205391	comment	A Detective Comics story "And the Executioner Wore Stiletto Heels" (issue #630) involved the villain, Stiletto, using an obscure book about shoes for a cipher. (The villain chose this book as a pun on his name—think "stiletto heels.") When Batman goes to the bookstore, the owner mentions how strange it is that he just sold several copies of a book nobody would buy normally. Batman asks him who bought the book in order to learn who's in on the plot.
The Book Cipher / int_5f205391	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_5f205391	featureConfidence	1.0
Detective Comics (Comic Book)	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_5f205391
The Book Cipher / int_690615f8	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_690615f8	comment	The German spy uses this kind of encryption in The Death of Achilles.
The Book Cipher / int_690615f8	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_690615f8	featureConfidence	1.0
The Death of Achilles	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_690615f8
The Book Cipher / int_6b3b8320	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_6b3b8320	comment	Wiseguy does a different version whenever the protagonist, undercover cop Vinnie Terranova, wants to pass on information to Lifeguard. He gives an authentication code consisting of words taken from that day's newspaper.
The Book Cipher / int_6b3b8320	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_6b3b8320	featureConfidence	1.0
Wiseguy	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_6b3b8320
The Book Cipher / int_72e7d7f6	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_72e7d7f6	comment	In A Presumption of Death, Lord Peter Wimsey, on assignment for British Intelligence in WWII Nazi-occupied Europe, uses a code based on the works of John Donne. The Germans, suspecting that an intelligence service in which Oxonians have a major role would choose a classical work of English literature, systematically try such works until hitting the right one and breaking the code, coming near to catching the spy. Wimsey then improvises a new code, based on an unpublished text known only to himself and his wife.
The Book Cipher / int_72e7d7f6	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_72e7d7f6	featureConfidence	1.0
Lord Peter Wimsey	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_72e7d7f6
The Book Cipher / int_74149a97	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_74149a97	comment	Red Dragon contains the same Red Herring book cipher as its film version, listed above.
The Book Cipher / int_74149a97	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_74149a97	featureConfidence	1.0
Red Dragon	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_74149a97
The Book Cipher / int_750abe8f	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_750abe8f	comment	In The Borgias, Micheletto's new lover Pascal is actually a spy for Caterina Sforza and is using a Book Cipher based on the poetry of Catullus. Even though Micheletto catches on that Pascal is doing this, he can't read. He can accurately redraw the shapes of letters, though, so he copies everything and takes it to Cesare to decipher.
The Book Cipher / int_750abe8f	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_750abe8f	featureConfidence	1.0
The Borgias	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_750abe8f
The Book Cipher / int_881a5fca	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_881a5fca	comment	The film version of Red Dragon has the serial killer and Hannibal Lecter communicate by posting a notice in a tabloid personal section. To pass a hidden message this way, verses from The Bible are listed. It's a Red Herring: the codebreakers at the FBI are smart enough to notice that Jonah 6:8 can't be meaningful when Jonah only has four chapters. However, they don't know what book is actually being referenced. Lloyd Bowman eventually determines that the cipher corresponds to page, word and letter in Hannibal the Cannibal's copy of The Joy of Cooking.
The Book Cipher / int_881a5fca	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_881a5fca	featureConfidence	1.0
Red Dragon	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_881a5fca
The Book Cipher / int_88770526	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_88770526	comment	The Sympathizer: The narrator, a Vietnamese Communist spy reporting back to Hanoi about the activities of anti-Communist Vietnamese in America, uses such a cipher, which he combines with using invisible ink.
The Book Cipher / int_88770526	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_88770526	featureConfidence	1.0
The Sympathizer	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_88770526
The Book Cipher / int_90e2f673	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_90e2f673	comment	Several novels in the BattleTech universe use this, as it is one of the few ways that messages can be sent that ComStar is unable to break. It is mentioned in one example that the book used was fairly common, but it was a specific rare printing of it that allowed them to block decryption.
The Book Cipher / int_90e2f673	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_90e2f673	featureConfidence	1.0
BattleTech (Tabletop Game)	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_90e2f673
The Book Cipher / int_9f78fda3	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_9f78fda3	comment	A variation in an episode of Murder, She Wrote set in Russia. One of the clues in the Murder of the Week was a manuscript about Soviet politics, beginning with the sentence, "The first and last word on the fate of Lenin was always in the hands of the Soviet people." After noticing a number of glaring grammatical errors, Jessica Fletcher realized that the first sentence was the key to the code; the first and last words on each page, read consecutively, revealed the identity of a Soviet official who turned traitor.
The Book Cipher / int_9f78fda3	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_9f78fda3	featureConfidence	1.0
Murder, She Wrote	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_9f78fda3
The Book Cipher / int_a14bb239	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_a14bb239	comment	A cipher centering around early folios of Shakespeare plays is a plot point in the Princess Principal OVAs
The Book Cipher / int_a14bb239	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_a14bb239	featureConfidence	1.0
Princess Principal	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_a14bb239
The Book Cipher / int_b60c14c	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_b60c14c	comment	Subverted in the finale of Without a Clue, where Holmes finds a note that he thinks is a book cipher, which refers to Psalms 22, which talks about the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and The Shadow of Death is the name of a play that has only been shown in one theatre in London in the recent past. Moriarty turns out to be there, and then Holmes learns from the kidnap victim that the Shadow of Death reference was pure coincidence, as the numbers also matched the street address of the theatre.
The Book Cipher / int_b60c14c	featureApplicability	-0.3
The Book Cipher / int_b60c14c	featureConfidence	1.0
Without a Clue	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_b60c14c
The Book Cipher / int_bb8353f4	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_bb8353f4	comment	The Baader Meinhof Complex. Moby-Dick is used when passing coded messages from the terrorists in their maximum security prison to their followers on the outside.
The Book Cipher / int_bb8353f4	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_bb8353f4	featureConfidence	1.0
The Baader Meinhof Complex	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_bb8353f4
The Book Cipher / int_c67be877	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_c67be877	comment	Flashman and the Mountain of Light. Flashman gets a nasty shock when he's Lured into a Trap by a false message while working undercover in India. First they captured and tortured the courier who passed on his messages, then brought in a cryptographer (cryptography is an Indian invention, as they point out) to crack the code, getting all the evidence they need.
The Book Cipher / int_c67be877	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_c67be877	featureConfidence	1.0
Flashman	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_c67be877
The Book Cipher / int_c75d67d	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_c75d67d	comment	Person of Interest. The Machine passes on the social security number of each potential Victim or Villain of the Week via a list of numbers and letters that correspond to the Dewey classification of the books in Finch's library. In one episode, Finch works out a Public Secret Message is a book code, and also realizes from the choice of book (on American Revolutionary War heroes) that it was sent by privacy terrorist group Vigilance.
The Book Cipher / int_c75d67d	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_c75d67d	featureConfidence	1.0
Person of Interest	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_c75d67d
The Book Cipher / int_ca07828e	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_ca07828e	comment	In The Unit episode "Paradise Lost", Jonas Blane uses a book code from the poem Paradise Lost to communicate to his wife, Molly, that he has arrived safely in Panam.
The Book Cipher / int_ca07828e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_ca07828e	featureConfidence	1.0
The Unit	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_ca07828e
The Book Cipher / int_ccf875f7	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_ccf875f7	comment	"The Fisher King", a two-part episode of Criminal Minds, features an Ottendorf cipher part of a larger puzzle to find a girl who had been missing for two years. The key text was The Collector by John Fowles.
The Book Cipher / int_ccf875f7	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_ccf875f7	featureConfidence	1.0
Criminal Minds	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_ccf875f7
The Book Cipher / int_cec99ed9	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_cec99ed9	comment	Safehold: In By Heresies Distressed, a group of Temple Loyalists uses a four-number book cipher (page, paragraph on that page, sentence in that paragraph, word in that sentence) to plot Sharleyan's assassination. While the cipher itself was devised by the Church centuries earlier, one plotter notes the irony that Charis' "heretical" introduction of Arabic numerals note pre-Merlin Safehold used Roman numerals makes the cipher much easier to use. How Firm a Foundation uses a page-line-word book cipher with the numbers disguised as scripture references. Since the message only says how to get at a concealed (and unencrypted) letter, it's short enough that even the Inquisition spies examining it fall for the scripture-references cover.
The Book Cipher / int_cec99ed9	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_cec99ed9	featureConfidence	1.0
Safehold	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_cec99ed9
The Book Cipher / int_dfcb694a	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_dfcb694a	comment	In The Valley of Fear, Sherlock Holmes decrypts a message enciphered with a book cipher by deducing which book had been used as a key text, though he does get messed up at one point because the letter was written at the turn of the year and the cipher key was an almanac, resulting in Holmes' first guess as to which edition of the almanac to use being wrong.
The Book Cipher / int_dfcb694a	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_dfcb694a	featureConfidence	1.0
The Valley of Fear	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_dfcb694a
The Book Cipher / int_e033006e	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_e033006e	comment	In the film Unknown (2011), Prof. Bressler's passwords are obscured by an Ottendorf cipher.
The Book Cipher / int_e033006e	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_e033006e	featureConfidence	1.0
Unknown (2011)	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_e033006e
The Book Cipher / int_eca201fb	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_eca201fb	comment	In National Treasure, the hero discovers various numbers hidden on the back of the Declaration of Independence; these correspond not to a book per se, but to the 'Silence Dogood' letters his father donated to a museum.
The Book Cipher / int_eca201fb	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_eca201fb	featureConfidence	1.0
National Treasure	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_eca201fb
The Book Cipher / int_efa49b17	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_efa49b17	comment	The Mentalist: While undercover in the "Orange Blossom Ice Cream" episode, Jane is given a string of 81 numbers by a terrorist Arms Dealer so that Jane can use his Photographic Memory to smuggle them to a contact in America. Jane quickly figures out that the numbers are a book cipher as the arms dealer keeps two filled bookshelves and, in Jane's words, "he's not a reader". After the American contact is killed, Jane has to break into the arms dealer's home to figure out which of the many book acts as the key.
The Book Cipher / int_efa49b17	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_efa49b17	featureConfidence	1.0
The Mentalist	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_efa49b17
The Book Cipher / int_f4e799ee	type	The Book Cipher
The Book Cipher / int_f4e799ee	comment	Burn Notice uses this, especially in the fourth season, where it becomes part of the season-long plot when Michael Westen steals a Bible from a safe deposit box that is the code book of Simon.
The Book Cipher / int_f4e799ee	featureApplicability	1.0
The Book Cipher / int_f4e799ee	featureConfidence	1.0
Burn Notice	hasFeature	The Book Cipher / int_f4e799ee

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

The Book Cipher	processingCategory2	Bookish Tropes
The Book Cipher	processingCategory2	Espionage Tropes
The Book Cipher	processingCategory2	Older Than Television
The Book Cipher	processingCategory2	Small Reference Pools
Detective Comics (Comic Book) / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Edge of Darkness (1943) / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
If a Tree Falls: A Story of the Earth Liberation Front / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
National Treasure / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The Baader Meinhof Complex / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The Human Factor / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Unknown (2011) / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Red Dragon / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The Death of Achilles / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The Good Soldier Å vejk / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The List / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The Sympathizer / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The Valley of Fear / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Tommy and Tuppence / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
World of the Five Gods / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Luther / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
National Treasure: Edge of History / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Orange Is the New Black / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Sharpe / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The Borgias / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The Mentalist / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
The Unit / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Vienna Blood / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Archipelago (Webcomic) / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher
Seventeen Moments of Spring / int_db2727e0	type	The Book Cipher

Copyright of DBTropes.org wrapper 2009-2013 DFKI Knowledge Management. Imprint. - Thanks to Bakken&Baeck for hosting. Contact.
Copyright of data TVTropes.org contributors under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License.