Elizebeth Friedman wrote the book, literally, on codebreaking in this country. She established the agency that was the forerunner to the NSA. She hunted Nazi spies during World War II, and bootleggers and mobsters at the height of Prohibition. She did all of this while caring for her long-depressive husband, William Friedman, whose legacy was to dear to her that she quietly allowed herself to be written out of the history of all of these things rather than risk diminishing the credit William otherwise received.
Jason Fagone's biography of Elizebeth is fascinating, both in the context of her, as a person, and his explanations of codebreaking itself. As is so often the case, I'm in awe of the brains of those of figure this stuff out, as well as Fagone's work as an author to breathe life into what could otherwise be a highly obtuse topic. (This he does is no small part by asking, for example, that the reader consider the ways in which any two people can and do develop "codes" in how they communicate; the more intimate the communication, the more encoded it becomes.)
Four stars.
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