Whenever I go up to my mother’s to visit, Kevin Tipple says I’m running around and partying. Actually, that’s possible. Yesterday, it was a family baptism and party afterwards. So, Kevin steps in with with a review or two while I’m gone. Thank you, Kevin.

Eleven Numbers: A Short Story by Lee Child is something far different than one would
expect from the author of the legendary Jack Reacher series. Instead, this quick read is
all about math and mathematician Nathan Tyler. But, as the publisher synopsis makes
clear, spy stuff is also at work here.

Despite the advice from the airline, the State Department, and his boss, Nathan Tyler is
headed to Russia for a mathematics conference. Tyler is sure that the Russians value
and respect math. He is sure that the conference will an island of calm in a sea of chaos
and noise. Besides, he is a man on a mission and operating on a need-to-know basis
and other folks do not need to know everything that is in his head.

Of course, things go sideways. The questions are twofold. How did they go sideways?
Is he going to get home, alive and in one piece?

A pleasant change of pace, Eleven Numbers: A Short Story by Lee Child is a fast
moving and fun read. Even if you hated math in school and can’t balance a checkbook
to save yourself, like me, you will learn a thing or two about numbers. Especially, eleven
very important ones.

Recommended.

My reading copy came by way of a digital ARC, made available by the publisher,
Amazon Original Stories, through NetGalley, after the publication date earlier this
month (February). Good thing to for this reader as the Dallas Public Library System does not carry
it.

Kevin R. Tipple ©2025