The Amateur
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Description
"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.
Book Information
Posts
A page-turner from beginning to end. Some details remind the reader of the publishing year of the book (1981), e.g. because mobile phones were not an everyday item back then, and therefore the characters have to go search for the next public phone. To me, this didn't take away anything from the suspense and readability.
The story had me intrigued from the first page. Throughout the whole book, there's always just the right amount of open questions or tension to make you want to read on. In addition, I like Littell's style, so it was easy to get into a nice reading flow. If the story were published today, it would be written differently, not only to account for the technical developments, but probably also because we're more used to high speed and highly clever spies. But I liked it just the way it is: It seemed more real and believable this way.
Description
"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.
Book Information
Posts
A page-turner from beginning to end. Some details remind the reader of the publishing year of the book (1981), e.g. because mobile phones were not an everyday item back then, and therefore the characters have to go search for the next public phone. To me, this didn't take away anything from the suspense and readability.
The story had me intrigued from the first page. Throughout the whole book, there's always just the right amount of open questions or tension to make you want to read on. In addition, I like Littell's style, so it was easy to get into a nice reading flow. If the story were published today, it would be written differently, not only to account for the technical developments, but probably also because we're more used to high speed and highly clever spies. But I liked it just the way it is: It seemed more real and believable this way.