Her Hidden Genius

From the co-author of The Personal Librarian and the New York Times bestselling author of The Mystery of Mrs. Christie.

Rosalind Franklin has always been distinct, clever, and an outcast. She feels most connected to science while working at the laboratory she loved in Paris or when working at a university in London; it is the constant rules of physics and chemistry that direct her investigations. She thinks she can uncover DNA's mysteries when she is tasked with working on it.

Rosalind is aware that she can unlock the building blocks of life if she just takes one more X-ray image—one more out of thousands. She will never have to listen to her coworkers bemoan her again, notably Maurice Wilkins, who would sooner plot genetics with Francis Crick and James Watson than collaborate with her.

Finally, the structure of DNA's double helix is shown to her with perfect clarity. Rosalind could never have imagined what would happen next, however.

In her compelling new book, Marie Benedict sheds light on a woman who gave her life to learn the truth about our DNA—a woman whose revolutionary discoveries were unnoticed by the men in her immediate vicinity but whose unwavering determination changed our view of humanity.