Truly a unique tale packed into a short story. Interesting and fun! Many thanks to the publisher and netgalley for this copy for read and review

This is a fun little espionage story. An American mathematician is whisked away to an undisclosed location to help the US in a secret mission. It's written in the typical Lee Child fashion with dialog consisting of short sentences that characters spit out like bursts of gunfire. The writing style makes me miss the Jack Reacher books of old when it was Lee Child writing them before his brother Andrew took over the franchise. This short story has a nice little twist and a very satisfying ending. Reading this was a fun way to spend half an hour.

Thanks again Netgalley!

I'm a #1 fan of Lee Child. I love the writing style, the build up.. The way the story unfolds.

This is the second short story I've ever read by Lee, the other one was cleaning gold with karin slaughter. I'm not spoiling anything, because the story is so short.. If you say to much it'll spoil. So I'll just say what I like and what I miss with this one.

The writing style is ace, it really reads like a charm, the way the story unfolds is a bit too quick for my liking, but then again, it's a short story so there isn't much "time" to have it a bit more detailed. The build up, that's the thing I was missing, somewhere in the middle I would've liked to see a moment where all unravels not all the way to the end. It's a bit anti climatic (?)

Still, 4 stars because it's Lee, well deserved.

A well-done spyish thriller from Lee Child that was a quick and enjoyable read and while I don't claim to know anything about mathematics, I didn't feel remotely lost stepping into that world.

Thanks to Amazon Original Stories and Netgalley for the digital ARC. This was given to me for an honest review.

A US mathematician is recruited by the US government to go to Russia to meet a Russian mathematician. How he gets there and his mission is really well thought out. Of course there are always some bumps along the way. A good story, I would have read more!

This is very short, definitely more short story than novella. A lot of it is spent on the mathematics professor getting to Washington and the meeting rather than the actual assignment. Still a great read, I just think with so little time, it is better spent on the Russia part of the story.

If you are used to Jack Reacher, this one is far less action filled. It is hard to really review it without any spoilers, but it has some good twists and one you don’t want to put down, and at 33 pages, you can easily finish it in one sitting. Not sure I would have chosen the same ending as the professor though, even if it is the safer option.

This was a super interesting short read! It held my attention the entire time. The entire story has to do with numbers and mathematics. And of course a plot twist I did not see coming 🤯
A great read!

True Lee Child genius - short, to the point, and filled with tension, intrigue, and surprises. Good read and educational too!

Thanks to NetGalley and Amazon Original Stories for the opportunity to read this short story.

4.5 "masterful, accomplished, exciting" stars !!

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and Amazon Original Stories for an ecopy. This is being released today on Feb. 1, 2025. I am providing an honest review.

I have not read Child before but was somewhat curious. This popped up on Netgalley and I nabbed it.
I was very impressed at the simplicity of the prose, the elegance of the storyline and the subdued excitement. Wonderful and clever twists ! This is simply masterful popular fiction at its best and yes I have added the first in the Jack Reacher series.

Believe it or not Mathematics and Moscow and State Secrets are a thrilling combination !!

Math professor Nathan Tyler becomes an unwitting pawn in a covert plot involving the Russian nuclear arsenal. Only he and two other mathematicians, one in the USA and the other in Russia, understand Kindansky numbers, a group of eleven numbers with unique properties that will allow access to the Kremlin’s secrets. Tyler is sent as a sort of math secret agent to a math conference in Russia. This does not go well and Tyler has to rely on his street sense rather than mathematical gifts for survival.

Math was never my strong suit and even if it were, I would have had trouble understanding the baffling mathematical concepts in Eleven Numbers. That isn’t necessary. The puzzle in Eleven Numbers is the plot, a cat and mouse game that is entertaining and almost impossible to solve. 5 stars.

Thank you to MetGalley, Amazon Original Stories and Lee Child for this ARC..