Early Review of Killing Einstein
Albert Einstein and Kurt Gödel unlocked great intellectual secrets, but Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem are not the only secrets explored in Morris Hoffman’s remarkable novel Killing Einstein. Hoffman unearths many personal revelations of these two intellectual giants. Shrewdly framed as a spy novel, the work is as exciting as it is heady.
Charming and not nearly as dim as he lets on, FBI agent Charlie Richards serves as the perfect guide to understanding the threats to Einstein’s life and the misunderstood concepts underpinning them. Killing Einstein is filled with both humor and delicious twists. Oh, the novel can turn dark and poignant – the invidious and insidious Nazi shadow looms over the characters. Yet Hoffman’s memorable depiction of Einstein gives this surveillance-driven yarn great buoyancy. Witty dialogue abounds, and the leafy, stately paths of Princeton provide an environment ripe for both spying and contemplation.
Killing Einstein is a thinking man’s novel marked by intense mathematical and physics theory, examining seminal ideas of the Twentieth Century. By the time I closed the book, I learned much more about the hidden structures of our world even as I was tremendously entertained. Morris Hoffman has pulled off quite a literary feat!
--Michael Hartnett, author of The Blue Rat