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.

The Amateur is a richly enjoyable thriller. Heller is a total amateur. He is very clever but he has no idea about spy-craft and no sense of what the real stakes are. But as a total amateur with no knowledge of the rules of the game, perhaps he can almost accidentally outwit his enemies, both in the Warsaw Pact and in the CIA itself?