Ada Lovelace was a path-breaking mathematician and writer, who is considered the world’s first computer programmer, because she was the first person to write an algorithm intended to be carried out by a machine.

Sydney Padua’s graphic novel chronicles her work on Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, a proposed mechanical computer. In this sense, it starts out as a work of nonfiction. However, it then imagines the adventures the two inventors might have had. In the fictionalised telling that follows, the two solve crimes using their mathematical prowess.

“A rip-roaring caper engulfed in footnotes of quotes, quips and illuminating asides…the book does more than simply celebrate the genius of the first computer programmer, it encourages us to turn our imagination to technology – just as Lovelace did,” says a review in The Guardian.

Published in 2015.