The Amateur - Robert Littell

The Amateur

By Robert Littell

  • Release Date: 2025-03-11
  • Genre: Mysteries & Thrillers
Score: 4
4
From 55 Ratings

Description

A spy thriller classic, soon to be a major motion picture starring Rami Malek, Rachel Brosnahan, Caitriona Balfe, and Laurence Fishburne.

“A taut, chilling plot and a protagonist as memorable as one of Len Deighton’s, or le Carré’s Smiley.”—The New York Times Book Review


Charlie Heller is an ace cryptographer for the CIA, a quiet man in a quiet back-office job. But when his fiancée, Sarah Diamond, is murdered by terrorists at the American Embassy in West Germany and the Company refuses to pursue her killers, Heller takes matters into his own hands.

Tracking down Sarah’s killers behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia, Heller becomes both the hunter and the hunted—an amateur facing off against the world’s deadliest assassins and spies. But nothing will stop him from getting revenge.

Expertly plotted with shocking twists and pulse-pounding suspense, The Amateur is a sleek and stunning novel that belongs on the shelves of every espionage fan.

Reviews

  • Good to the last word

    5
    By mcintoshtheman
    The Amateur is written so convincingly that I felt like it passed over from the line of fiction into the line of reality. I could sense a feeling of Heller, the main character, having been betrayed by those he believed in and at the same time his unprofessionalism in his role at the CIA, gave him a feeling of superiority because his grasp of the fine implications of each action performed by CIA superiors. I suggest you read it and hopefully it’ll be as thoroughly enjoyable as it was for me.
  • Not the best Littell (the father) book

    3
    By Jean-Louis Gassée
    The electronic copy was damaged towards the end of chapter 1. For the rest, this clearly isn’t Dear Robert Littell’s best book, IMO not as taught or crazy as his best. I should have known when I saw the Mick Herron endorsement.