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The Amateur

Charlie Heller is a cryptographer not a spy, let alone an assassin. But the murder of his fiancée and the failure of the CIA to follow up on the case makes everything different. Heller uses his contacts to get behind the Iron Curtain himself and to pursue the three men who killed her. A richly enjoyable thriller about a man with no spy craft taking on the spy world, it demands how far a dangerous game can be played - if a man only knows the rules. Can this amateur outwit his enemies, both in the Warsaw Pact and in the CIA itself?

About Robert Littell

Robert Littell was born in Brooklyn in 1935. He is the author of a group of highly original and atmospheric novels set during the Cold War and its aftermath. The Amateur is perhaps his most famous book and has twice been filmed, in 1995 and 2025, the latter film starring Rami Malik and Laurence Fishburne. His most recent novel is A Plague on Both Your Houses (2024).
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