Matthew Reilly
Pam MacMillan
Otago Daily Times, 2024
From its stark red-on-black cover to its brick-like dimensions and titular appellation as ‘an epic’, Matthew Riley’s latest novel unashamedly targets the blockbuster market. To his credit, it largely lives up to its promise. It opens in 1948 with the sparsely-attended funeral of 46-year-old Hanna Fischer, an event notable only for the presence of Albert Einstein, a childhood neighbour for whom she, in later years, acted as occasional secretary. From here, we follow her extraordinary life in which she faces down everybody from mafia bosses to her psychotic twin sister, accompanies Einstein at the 1927 Solvay Conference, spies on the Third Reich from the offices of Albert Speer, and repeatedly rescues her OSS handler from deathly peril.
It is a pity, though, that Riley chose not to base his resourceful heroine on one of the many extraordinary civilian women who served during WWII. And whilst his afterword reassures us Hitler, Einstein, and Speer did exist, Einstein’s primary secretary, Helen Dukas, is omitted from the list.
Hanna’s fictional status doesn’t lessen the enjoyment of Riley’s twist-strewn plot, however. Mr Einstein’s Secretary was evidently great fun to write, and when searching the airport bookstore for in-flight entertainment, you could do far worse.
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