A riveting thriller about an ordinary man's quest for extraordinary vengeance
Charlie Heller is a CIA cryptographer, a quiet man in a back-room job. He’s not a spy, let alone an assassin. But when his beloved fiancée is murdered by terrorists and his employers refuse to pursue her killers, Heller decides to take matters into his own hands. Pursuing the culprits all the way behind the Iron Curtain, he is playing a dangerous game and doesn’t know the rules. But even an amateur can outwit his enemies – especially when he’s got nothing to lose.
Robert Littell was born in Brooklyn in 1935. He is the author of a group of novels set during the Cold War and its aftermath. He is best known for his books The Company (2002) and The Amateur (1981), whichhas 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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