I loved the novella format for this story. Hellman manages to include great character development and a suspenseful, twisting plot in a compact book that reads in one sitting! I also loved the historical aspects that make this historical fiction and suspense all in one. ( )

This novella starts at the beginning of the end, with nothing given away; then it quickly reverts to the beginning...a unique method that really pulls the reader into the book. The story takes place in a time I can remember and as such I can honestly say that Libby Fischer Hellman has absolutely captured the feelings and fears of that time of world war, as well as delving into the pressure cooker of the beginnings of the atomic bomb. Nuclear physics was at its highest priority, and Lena, a German Jew living in America, has already suffered the probable loss of her family to the concentration camps, and has just lost her husband, father of her young son. After this loss, and to support her son and herself, she finds herself back in the Physics Dept. of the university where she had worked prior to her son's birth, busily occupied with the humdrum portion, the paperwork. Now she works with famous scientists and government workers, albeit as a secretary. Everything in her life seems to have begun to return to some type of normal...or has it?

At this point, tension in the story takes a full swing into terror and brings the reader with it.Yet, though the tension builds, it all seems plausible. Once again, a time in my memory is relived when the world lived in fear, especially North America. What can one do in the situation Lena finds herself? The story is a classic good versus evil, but will Lena be able to reconcile her thoughts, her shame and the trap she has set herself? This book pulsates with a life of its own, believable, memorable and deadly. The author has an amazing way with words and is exceptional at toying with our minds if we set to wondering "What would we do in Lena's situation?" I read this one straight through at one sitting and immediately set to writing a review. ( )

I received a copy of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review.

The Incidental Spy was my first book by Libby Fischer Hellman, but it certainly won’t be my last. It was a good length for a novella, but I was sorry to see it end. While it started out like a low-key little story and didn’t seem very exciting or fast-paced at first, I soon realized that not only was I totally engaged with Lena and all the other characters, but that I also could not put it down. I had to read faster and faster to find out what would happen next.

Lena doesn’t have an easy life. She is forced to leave her home, her parents, and her love in Nazi Germany to live in safety with her aunt in the United States. She does eventually settle in to her new home, and finds rewarding, meaningful work, and love again. Life is good. But things don’t always go as we wish and Lena still has more to endure.

She is a strong, resourceful woman and she is determined to survive whatever life throws her way. But it’s not easy; she must be brave and persevere.

Libby Fischer Hellman shows us that strength as well as the danger and excitement in an understated, matter-of-fact way without any contrived, unnecessary dramatic twists and turns. The Manhattan Project is presented as a sideline that is historically accurate, factual, and fascinating. As the story progresses you learn just what an amazing woman Lena is, but you have no idea how things will work out until the very end.

This was a very satisfying story. I will be back for more. ( )

The Incidental Spy by Libbey Fisher Hellmann

Very good with a surprise ending. This is how I would sum up The Incidental Spy by Libbey Fisher Hellmann.
Lena Bentheim is a young girl living in Nazi Germany in the 1930’s. She is forced to leave everything behind and flee to Chicago. Once in Chicago she gets a job at the University of Chicago working in the Physics Department. Here she meets and marries another German refugee and together they have a child. After a terrible tragedy Lena becomes a spy, but not by choice. She is forced to spy on the nuclear fission experiments taking place at the University or her life and that of her daughter’s could be in danger.
The story, or what Hellmann calls a novella, starts in Chicago in 1842 with Lena getting kidnapped, or at least this is what she thinks is happening. After this first chapter we are taken back to 1935 Berlin and the start of what will happen with and to Lena. Here we meet Lena’s first love, Josef, but we quickly learn this love is not meant to be. The next eleven chapters take us through Lena’s early life with Karl and bring us to the terrible tragedy in 1942. Lena’s life is undergoing a dramatic change.
The remaining chapters in the book kept my interest. I did not want to put the book down. I needed to continue reading about Lena to find out what would happen. I never expected the story to take the final turn that it did. I love when an author can keep me guessing until she/he reveals the ultimate surprise. Libbey Fisher Hellmann does an excellent job with this. I highly recommend The Incidental Spy to all who enjoy a good mystery. ( )