Einstein’s secretary by Matthew Reilly

I finally realized what was needed to push me back to clear up my backlog of books, a cyclone and complete power shutdown!! Hopefully for the remaining books, I wouldn’t require such a “strong” motivator!! 

After the Jack West series got over, wasn’t sure of what to expect next from him. There was a movie which he made that was, well, typically his style with all mayhem and doomsday level destruction awaiting to happen at a literal click of a button with just the lead character being the last line of defense/defiance between apocalypse and aftermath. The other standalone novel “Cobalt Blue” which he may potentially turn into a series, was again not so enthusing as it felt like reading a script of a Marvel movie minus the visual effects. 

In Einstein’s secretary, he produces an interesting way of storytelling, more on the lines of “How I met your mother” drama series, where clips from future episodes are strewn all around the season, making the audience curious and hooked on to when that knot will be revealed. In what would’ve ideally been a documentary setup of narration, with the narrator droning on about her life story, he has produced a quirky way of storytelling. Of course, the story begins with the lead character narrating her life, starting with her funeral and tracing back the events that happened prior, but the way in which the story is mixed up makes it a racy read as similar to other creations by Matt. The story traces the life and times of Hanna Fischer, a fictional character, who plays the role of secretary to not just Einstein, but also couple of Nazi leaders. The narration is super-fast and picks up pace right from page one with a quirky introduction of the attendees of her funeral, Einstein being the most prominent of the 4 people who turns up to eulogize the deceased. The story traverses across WW1 and WW2 along with how the life and times of Hanna takes shape during those terrible times where she grows from a student of Physics yet to graduate high school to getting shunted across continents where she lands up in a course to become secretary only to shuttle back into war torn Germany where she organically gets roped in as a spy, working against the axis forces and eventually helping the Allied forces in winning the war. While the major events mentioned in the book are real and quite well known, Matthew has weaved an interesting spy thriller leading to a happy ending. Added to the mix is a twin sister who is possibly the embodiment of evil and gets away with almost everything to meet her eventual end, a typical Matthew Reilly villain, who grows strong as the nemesis of the hero only to be vanquished in the end by the hero.

I found the book to be a fast paced thriller and would definitely recommend it to anyone who wants to have a taste of Matthew Reilley’s other creations as it sets up really nice as to what to expect from this author.