"Fox is a talented storyteller, and she creates an atmosphere of almost nail-biting suspense. This one deserves shelf space along such classics of the genre as Simon Singh's The Code Book ." -- Booklist (starred review) "A fascinating yarn centered around an unlikely heroine. Fox's deft explanations of the script-solving process allow readers to share in the mental detective work of cracking the lost language." -- Publishers Weekly "Fox recreates the emergence of one of history's most vexing puzzles--and then puts readers alongside the remarkable figures who, brilliantly, obsessively, and even tragically, devoted their lives to solving it. Forget the Da Vinci Code . This is the real thing." -- Toby Lester, author of Da Vinci's Ghost "Margalit Fox describes the decipherment of Linear B in such lucid detail that any reader can follow the steps and participate in the thrill of discovery.

" -- Stephen Mitchell, translator of Gilgamesh and the Iliad "Fox's achievement here is to make this fascinating tale accessible to a broader audience." -- Washington Post ". a nail-biting intellectual and cultural adventure." -- The Times UK "Deft, sharply written . Fox's account runs with the pace and tension of a detective story - and has much to say about language and writing systems along the way." -- The Guardian UK "[Fox] . has cracked it, fashioning an intellectual puzzle into an engrossing detective story of driven personalities, hidden clues, perseverance and intuition. In the process, she has uncovered a remarkable woman who had been buried by history.

" -- Sunday Times UK "As with any good detective story, there's a driving narrative behind the puzzle, peopled by solitary sleuths." -- The Guardian US.