Product Description

Twelve-year-old Jamie Gabriel gets on his bike before dawn to deliver newspapers in his suburban neighbourhood. Somewhere en route, he vanishes without a trace. Fourteen months later, still with no sign of Jamie and having lost all faith in the police, his parents Paul and Carol are on the verge of abandoning hope. Then they meet private investigator Frank Behr, a tough, reclusive ex-cop. Abandoned by his former colleagues, separated from his wife and haunted by his own terrible past, Behr doesn't make it a practice to take on hopeless cases, but the desperate couple's plea for help awakens a personal pain he can't ignore.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #139003 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-21
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 512 pages

HARLAN COBEN
Relentless suspense that will not let you out of its grasp...you'll forget you're reading fiction.

ROBERT CRAIS
Hard, mean, beautiful, touching -- a dazzling novel... David Levien has placed himself among the best writers in the field.

LINCOLN CHILD
One of the toughest, most gut-wrenching, and most believable suspense novels I've ever encountered. If David Levien pulled any punches, I was too dazed to notice.

Customer Reviews

Gripping action after a poor start
I was attracted to this title by an author unknown to me by the description: "Relentless suspense that will not let you aut of its grasp, and a cast of characters who are so utterly real you'll forget you're reading fiction."

I nearly didn't get past the first two chapters for two reasons. The first was the extraordinary use of the present tense by the author: "James Gabriel, rider, pedals. He flows by silent houses, houses dark inside. He tosses papers into yards and porches." After a very short time I found this very irritating - I did not know the characters at this stage of the story and could not mentally live inside their world in the present.

The second was the gratuitous use of of bad language. Although possibly the type of language used by the characters if they were to exist, again the offence to the senses caused me to ask why I was bothering to read further.

I came on to this site to give the book a very bad rating and a highly critical review - I had had enough. Then I found that others seemed to have a very different view, so I returned and persevered. The tense changed and the offending language largely disappeared (although not completely).

The remainder of the book is indeed gripping and makes its way quite violently to a "I must finish this" type of ending.

I cannot unconditionally recommend this book because of the two reasons I have described (I read many thrilling novels in which the author finds it completely unnecessary to use foul language at all, but can still convey villany and underworld), but the story line is clever with twists and turns building in intensity as the adventure develops.

Cuidad del Sol
David Levien may have just published his first novel but he already has serious cred as a writer, having been responsible for the screenplays of several Hollywood movies such as Oceans Thirteen and Runaway Jury. His novel fits into the crime fiction genre and he has hit paydirt first time out. All of the basic requirements of a great novel are here: a fascinating story, great character development and faultless writing. In fact it's hardly surprising to learn that it is the first in a series, because it comfortably has the makings of a brand that could go on for years.

A middle-class Indianapolis couple are devasted when their 12-year-old son - and only child - goes missing on his early morning paper round. There are no clues at all as to how or why he would disappear and the police soon let the case go cold. But 14 months later they hire a private investigator named Frank Behr, a divorced six-foot-six hardened ex-cop with issues of his own to contend with which draw him into the case of the missing boy. He has something in common, in that he too had one son but he died when he was seven years old and Behr still hurts due to the fact that he was responsible in some way. It's not until late in the story that the reader finds out why. But Behr is in a class above the local police when it comes to investigating the reasons and circumstances behind the disappearance of Jamie Gabriel, his methods may not be politically correct but they make for great reading.

At times the book does read like a screenplay because it is told in countless relatively short bursts and the telling of the story is highly visual. Gradually however the reader gets more and more into the mind of PI Frank Behr, an element of story-telling that is harder to convey on television or the big screen. Levien writes at a fast pace which never really lets up at all, there is almost no padding or gratuitous love interest, even if there are some very touching moments of romance at times. Everything is narrated economically, simply but powerfully and the reader is at all times deeply involved in the pursuit and the stresses the missing boy's parents have to endure. At times there are some very welcome noirish elements but overall this is not a re-hash of yet another
hard-boiled, burnt-out private investigator stereotype. There are occasional touches of a Harlan Coben standalone in the style but this is better than any of those; instead the character of Frank Behr stands tall (literally) above everything else and will get any crime-fiction lover hungry for more of the same.

As a suspense thriller it hits the button on all counts and I am looking eagerly forward to the second installment in the Frank Behr series. Highly recommended.

A gripping thriller
City of the Sun is an extremely well-paced thriller that you could easily read in one sitting, as David Levien has a natural ability of drawing you in and holding on to you in a very tight grip.

The subject matter is not an easy one. Paul Gabriel and his wife have been living their lives in a dazed stupor since their only son went missing. They have dealt with disinterested policemen and the idea that other people think their son had a reason to run away from them. After 14 months, they are given a number for Frank Behr, a private detective with a good track record. So the mystery of unravelling the disappearance of Jamie Gabriel ensues, and the novel is filled with strong characters, intriguing relationships (the loss of his own son draws Frank into a painful and emotional bond to Paul and the case), and action filled sequences that are not unnecessarily gruesome.

The sub-plots add some gentle relief without distracting you from the main story (Frank's baby steps into a new relationship stands out in particular), and while the ending may feel like an easy one, it doesn't take away from the fact that this is a very good thriller indeed.

David Levien has managed to create a engaging novel with a leading man who you feel you have got to know extremely well by the end. I for one hope he appears again in the very near future.