Review: Short story: "Eleven Numbers" by Lee Child

Eleven Numbers by Lee Child
Published February 2025 via Amazon Original Stories

It should be just another math conference—in Moscow, sure, but a math conference all the same. But for Nathan Tyler, whose claim to fame is being an expert in an obscure sub-specialty of mathematics (in other words: nobody will be recognizing him on the street), it's not quite as simple as that...because his set of knowledge is precisely what the US government needs. The question: how far is he willing to go in support of his country? And how far is the government willing to go to get what they want?

Now, math and I are not close friends. I went to a school for science and mathematics, where I aced a prestigious mathematics exam and qualified for the next, even more prestigious exam...upon which I took stock and decided that I'd rather be in my international relations class (or was it medical ethics?) than voluntarily take a three-hour, three-question exam that I was unlikely to pass. So the highlight of my interest in math was skipping the extra math and going to class instead. But I enjoy how much Nathan is able to pull from some simple sets of numbers, and how much tension Child is able to put into a story that is, you know...about math.

Of course, it probably helps that Child is not really telling a story about math: he's telling a story about politics and intrigue and spying and prison. I won't spoil the details, but this story does a satisfying thing of withholding details, and then dropping back to explain context, and then withholding details—a thing that I would hate in a full-length novel (as a rule, I don't enjoy it when characters withhold information from the reader) but that works in something of this length. I read this as something of a palate cleanser, and it's satisfying in length and speed of action. I'm still not here for full-length thrillers about politics (or, really, any genre that is about politics), but in this form? Yes please.

Thanks to the author and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.