A gripping historical novel based on the true life of the woman who took on Al Capone, broke the enigma code, and helped found the CIA.

"Washington, D.C., 1958: Grace Feldman is hiding a dangerous secret in her home - not to mention countless others in her head. Grace, a would-be Shakespeare scholar with no mathematical background, learns the art of codebreaking on the fly and becomes one of the country's most potent secret weapons, decrypting intercepted messages during World War I, Prohibition and World War II. From her own father to her mad and mercurial first boss, from Army colonels to Coast Guard commanders, from Navy admirals to Nazi spies, Grace learns to hold her own against intimidating men and win their respect, against impossible odds. Along the way, Grace reluctantly falls in love, marries, and has children-becoming one of the first working mothers and an oddity in her neighborhood. During her remarkable journey, Grace votes for the first time, tangles with none other than Al Capone, forms a friendship with the First Lady, dines with the President of the United States, and creates a cryptologic system for Wild Bill Donovan and the fledgling CIA. She deciphers and reconstructs the wiring of the fearsome German Enigma machine and foils a plot by Hitler to invade the United States via South America. Grace also unwittingly makes an enemy of the most dangerous man in Washington: J. Edgar Hoover, head of the FBI. And if he discovers the secret she's desperately trying to keep hidden, her family and her career could be at risk"--