The Amateurs

by Marcus Sakey

Book Overview

In Sakey's taut, propulsive novel, four friends from the old neighborhood have dreams of a better life. But they go too far with a plan to change their situation, and now their world is falling apart. To save their own lives, they have to take the lives of others.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0525951261
• ISBN13: 9780525951261
• Release Date: August 2009
• Publisher: Dutton Books
• Length: 372 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.3" x 9.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

There's something about these people

I've read the editorial reviews. The plot is implausible, they say. The characters are just too dumb, they say. Well, okay. Hitchcock said that the first casualty of movie-making is logic. That's gotta be true of crime novels, too. So stipulated: The things that happen in this book? They would never really happen. And yet there's something about these people. I got to know them in a way that is unusual for a crime novel. So I kind of believed that they were flawed enough, discouraged enough, off-kilter enough to do the the idiotic things they did. And then I started to think: Maybe we're all just one stupid idea away from getting ourselves in so deep we can never climb back out. Ah, Mitch! You're such a schmoe! But I feel for you.

Nothing is ever easy...

If you haven't heard of Marcus Sakey yet, you will soon! Three of his four novels have already been optioned for movies. The Blade Itself: A Novel had its rights picked up by Ben Affleck's production company and the movie will star Chris Pine from Star Trek (Single-Disc Edition). Actor Tobey Maguire bought the rights to Good People. "The Amateurs" is my first read (but not last) of Marcus Sakey. I finally decided to take the plunge after hearing over and over again about his smash debut novel "The Blade Itself" and reading one of his short stories (The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away) from the short story thriller anthology Thriller 2: Stories You Just Can't Put Down: Through a Veil DarklyGhost WriterA Calculated RiskRemakingThe Weapon. The book is a serious page turner and a very realistic story. Four friends Jenn, Ian, Mitch and Alex come up with a plan that will change their lives forever. Of course much like in the real world, nothing ever goes as planned and nothing is ever as simple as it may have seemed. The characters make this book, they are each perfect in every way for the story. If Sakey had written the characters poorly, this novel would be a flop, lucky for us he nailed it. Getting to know the characters as you read and watching them change after "the big event" is really outstanding. This book is a true thriller! Great writing, great characters and a great plot! Highly, highly recommended! Enjoy~ ** Not only is Marcus Sakey a great writer, he's a good guy. To find him at his website, just search his name online and you'll see as I did that he's a very reader friendly author.

From beginning to end, THE AMATEURS will haunt you like a ghost

Starting in 2007 with THE BLADE ITSELF, his debut novel, Marcus Sakey began building his own shelf in the bookcase with a series of independent works dealing with what occurs when bad things happen to believable characters. His fourth book not only continues to explore this line of thought, but takes it to new places, wherein he deftly juggles a complex quartet of characters who are so out of their depth that they're barely aware they're drowning. Everyone, quite ironically, gets what they want in THE AMATEURS. What Sakey really gets into here --- and he's very subtle in doing this --- is demonstrating that when you reach down into the pit and pull out that jewel you have lusted after, it's often wrapped in barbed wire that's hanging on to it as well. THE AMATEURS begins with an introduction to a group of friends, four people who have gradually gravitated toward each other into an informal Thursday night drinking meetup at Rossi's, a Chicago bar and restaurant with pretensions for something more. Alex is a bartender there, a job in which he seems to be stuck even as his ex-wife has moved on to better things, taking their daughter with her while holding his unpaid child support obligation over his head. Mitch is seething internally, not only at the minor indignities he experiences each day on the job, but also with unrequited love for Jenn. A thirty-something, quietly hot travel agent who yearns for excitement beyond the vicarious enjoyment she receives from sending clients to exotic places, Jenn happens to be involved in a friends-with-privileges relationship with Alex. Ian, the fourth member of the group, is a broker who had beginner's luck early in his career but now seems to be on a "one and done" track, held back by his addiction to cocaine and distracted by his compulsion to gambling. The opportunity to change everything for all four of them emerges when Johnny Love, the shady owner of Rossi's, offers Alex a side job to provide some quiet "muscle" for a business transaction that is to take place in a few days. Love has a reputation as a drug dealer, and Alex is aware that Love's safe is bursting with cash. The quartet quickly --- too quickly --- conceives of a plan to separate Love from his money. Each of them has his or her own reasons. Alex can catch up on his delinquent child support, which he believes will keep his wife from leaving. Ian is deeply in debt to some very bad people. Jenn is seeking a thrill. And Mitch? He has a mad-on for Love anyway, but he primarily wants to protect Jenn. So they devise, what seems to be on the surface, a good plan. And it almost immediately begins to fall apart. One can sense that these folks are amateurs simply by the way Ian obtains the guns they use to pull off their planned heist. At first it doesn't look like a failure; in fact, everyone initially gets what they want. But they steal a lot more than money. And suddenly, they are in very big trouble, much worse than when they began. It would be bad

Great story

Here was a book I could not put down...literally. Great story...intense plot...Highly recommended! This is Marcus Sakey's best book...so far!

Would Give It Six Stars If I Could

I'd always thought the highest praise for a thriller was "I couldn't put it down." The Amateurs is so intense, so gripping, so real that I had to put it down several times lest my heart burst through my ribcage. Sakey puts us inside the heads of four friends who are looking for "something more" out of their lives and turn to a one-time crime for excitement, money, and maybe salvation. They find much more than they or anyone could imagine about treachery, evil, friendship, bravery, and even life's meaning. Bravo. If I could give this one six stars, I would.