"A taut, chilling plot and a protagonist as memorable as one of Len Deighton's, or le Carre's George Smiley." In a world of professionals, Charlie Heller is the Amateur and he's at the center of a chillingly engrossing tale of espionage and intrigue, written by master-of-the-genre Robert Littell. In this "first-rate thriller" (Chicago Tribune), Charlie Heller is an ace cryptographer for the Company. He's a quiet man with a quiet job in a back office. But when terrorists shoot his fiancée in cold blood and Heller learns that the Agency has decided not to pursue them, his force the CIA's hand. He was not an assassin but he will penetrate the Iron Curtain with the intent to kill. Driven by an obsessive need for revenge, targeted for elimination by the CIA itself, his chances of success are one in a million. In a world of professional killers, Charlie Heller is the Amateur.