First published 2025
In 1971, Marty Goddard worked at a crisis hotline where survivors' stories drove her to ask two urgent questions: Why do so many predators escape justice? How can we stop them? Her answer changed forensic science forever. Goddard invented the first rape kit and launched a campaign to treat sexual assault as the serious crime it is. Her kit became one of the most effective tools for prosecuting perpetrators. Yet Goddard herself vanished from all records. Journalist Pagan Kennedy embarks on a mission to uncover the woman behind this transformative invention. As Kennedy investigates, she exposes the inequities in our patent system, the gendered problems in forensics, the misogyny in police departments, and the ongoing failures in rape prosecution. The search reveals not just Goddard's forgotten story but also Kennedy's own experiences with sexual assault and how one woman's overlooked legacy could have protected countless others.
Genres: biography, 20th-century, 21st-century, true-crime, activism, american-history
Vibes: empowering, intimate, investigative, thought-provoking, urgent
Tropes: forgotten-history, personal-investigation, systemic-injustice
Setting: United States
Period: 1971, 20th century, 21st century
256 pages · Paperback · Vintage
Content warnings: rape, sexual-assault