Amateur

Rating:
Summary: Beginner's Luck For An Amateur!
Review: I have been on a Robert Littell reading binge lately and have become quite a fan. He ranks right up there with John le Carre, Ken Follett and Len Deighton when it comes to well written, original, intelligent espionage thrillers. I also enjoy Littell's use of irony and his dry sense of humor.

Charlie Heller is a quiet, unassuming man with a quiet, unassuming job in a back office of a large corporation. He is a crack cryptographer for the CIA - The Company. Since his boyhood he has been fascinated with untangling codes and he considers himself fortunate that he is able to pay the rent by doing a job that he so enjoys. As an added attraction, he gets to use the CIA's super-sophisticated computer, with which he pursues his hobby. Heller is a Shakespeare "denialist" and searches all of the great bard's works trying to find a cryptogram which will reveal their true author. So, with a well paid job, an unusual and most interesting hobby, and the love of a wonderful woman, his beloved fiancee Sarah Diamond, Charlie Heller is a happy man.

Unfortunately, Sarah is brutally murdered by terrorists in a surprise attack at the American Embassy in West Germany. (The novel is set in the 1970s). Charlie, informed of the news by his sympathetic superiors, is bereft. His feelings of loss and subsequent depression are clearly portrayed by Littell, as is the terrible bitterness he feels when he learns that The Company will not pursue the terrorists who committed the crime, even though their identity and location is known. They are behind the Iron Curtain in Czechoslovakia. Heller becomes driven by a need for revenge, which his Company psychiatrist notes is "very therapeutic." With his back against the wall, Heller manages to manipulate the masters of manipulation and move toward his goal of assassinating the terrorists responsible for Sarah's death. He is an amateur - "someone who thinks that if something is worth doing, it may be worth doing badly" - working against some of the best people in the field of espionage and assassination. And they all want to take Heller out with extreme prejudice.

This book is a real page turner. I could not put it down. Heller is an extremely well developed character and his motivation and talents are well thought-out and make perfect sense in the storyline. The minor characters are also terrific. His Czech contact is a brilliant addition to the plot and her constant malaprops bring much needed comic relief to many taut, tense situations. If you enjoy this book, you may want to check-out Robert Littell's "The Company." It is another excellent novel. Happy reading.
JANA

Rating:
Summary: One of the best of the genre
Review: It has been some years since I read the book so that is why I am only giving it a four. But it is one of those that stays with you long after many similar genre works are long forgotten so it should get a five. I loved Littel working the plot from the aspect of a CIA staffer who works in cryptography - not your typical Bond type. The cryptologist uses his knowledge of what is going on and hides CIA information to force the Agency to train him to exact revenge on the terrorists who killed his fiance. I also loved the sub plot of "who wrote Shakespeare's work." While Robert Ludlum and Clancy are still my favorites and both turn out excellent reads I would add Littel to my list of those who need to be read. And The Amateur is one of my very favorites.

Rating:
Summary: Shocking First Act Bogs Down in Later Chapters
Review: Robert Littell's "The Amateur" opens as well as one could hope for in an espionage thriller. In a scene the author describes with chilling clarity, a terrorist raid on a government office in Europe results in the cold-blooded execution -- on camera -- of a beautiful, innocent American woman. And the terrorists appear to fly to safety behind the Iron Curtain (the book is set in the Reagan era) without so much as a scratch.

Heller, the dead woman's fiance, just happens to be a top CIA cryptographer. Far from a field agent, Heller's a nerd, content to be squirrelled away with his computer and completely consumed with the idea of proving who in fact wrote Shakespeare's plays. Far from a field agent, his is the amateur of the title.

His life in ruins, Heller appears to be destined for a long slow decline into depression and alcoholism. But, through his fiance's father, Heller learns of the restorative power of revenge. Soon, Heller has blackmailed the CIA into letting him seek revenge, and he's getting trained as a field agent. His plan is to go behind the Iron Curtain and kill the three terrorists who murdered his beloved fiance.

But, for unspecified, ominous reasons, the Powers-That-Be at the CIA don't seem too excited about Heller's plan, and their frustrations aren't just due to the fact that Heller has successfully blackmailed the Company.

Thus far, "The Amateur" is a perfectly satisfactory thriller. Refreshingly, the story relies more on the human element than high-tech gadgetry, so it's nice to see Heller relying on his own wits and courage. Littell's writing is appropriately direct and concise -- he's not a Clancy-esque windbag getting sidetracked on matters of politics or superfluous subplots. But after Heller gets into the field, the book spins a little out of control, which is surprising considering how controlled the first half was.

Littell, I suppose, was in a bit of a quandary with Heller. After all, Heller is not a field agent and only receives a few weeks of assassination-related training. So it wouldn't be logical for Heller to suddenly become the next James Bond. But in allowing Heller to get from A to B to C, Littell allows Heller to benefit from a few too many coincidences. Note -- if you're ever working with a CIA agent in the field, don't ever exchange items of clothing that might cause you to be mistaken for the agent through a rifle scope. And if you're sidling up behind the field agent to put a bullet in his brain, don't give the agent time to be suddenly distracted so that he turns his head, causing you to miss.

It's also a little contrived that folks on the other side of the Iron Curtain with whom Heller gets involved are also fixated on the authorship of Shakespeare's plays. Yes, it's an interesting field of study, but to have so many experts in that subject in one small novel (only 252 pages) just ain't plausible.

This is the first of Littell's books that I've read, and I'm surely going to look into his other works. But I have to say that I was disappointed with certain aspects of this book -- not only did the book show great promise at the beginning, Littell's reputation had preceded him, so I had high expectations.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic CIA novel
Review: The writing was a bit difficult at times, but the story was GREAT! Heller is a cryptologist who blackmails the CIA. You know you want to read it rather than hearing more about it!

Rating:
Summary: The spy stradecraft lessons are interesting but....
Review: This is a story about Heller, a CIA techie here in the US whose fiancee is killed by terrorists in Europe. He decides that revenge -- killing the terrorists who killed her -- is his best course of action, blackmails his superiors into training him, then goes to Europe to do the job. The overarching problem I had with this book is that Heller did not seem suffienciently motivate. Consequently, his course of action seemed implausible. I had heard a lot of good things about Littell (and maybe he's gotten better -- this book is 20 years old. His knowledge of spy tradecraft is as advertised, but when it comes to the craft of writing, he is lacking. Trite metaphors and cliche's abound. Characterization is better than some in this genre, but a far cry from LeCarre, to whom he's compared on his dust jackets. All in, not bad to kill a plane ride. And if you like insider-CIA stuff, this won't dispappoint.

Rating:
Summary: The spy stradecraft lessons are interesting but....
Review: This is a story about Heller, a CIA techie here in the US whose fiancee is killed by terrorists in Europe. He decides that revenge -- killing the terrorists who killed her -- is his best course of action, blackmails his superiors into training him, then goes to Europe to do the job. The overarching problem I had with this book is that Heller did not seem suffienciently motivate. Consequently, his course of action seemed implausible. I had heard a lot of good things about Littell (and maybe he's gotten better -- this book is 20 years old. His knowledge of spy tradecraft is as advertised, but when it comes to the craft of writing, he is lacking. Trite metaphors and cliche's abound. Characterization is better than some in this genre, but a far cry from LeCarre, to whom he's compared on his dust jackets. All in, not bad to kill a plane ride. And if you like insider-CIA stuff, this won't dispappoint.