Missing Man

May 2, 2016
New York Times reporter Meier crafts a gripping account of the life and disappearance of Bob Levinson, a DEA and FBI agent turned PI, who vanished in Iran in 2007. Levinson's work for the Feds gave him a wealth of experience with complex investigations, including cases against the Mafia, Colombian drug cartels, and Russian organized crime, through which he made important connections in the world of intelligence gathering. That background came in handy when he entered the private sector in 2004. Before long, he was retained by the CIA to assist a new unit focusing on illicit international finance, a group that found his comprehensive reports educational and invaluable. By 2006, the Illicit Finance Group had been tasked to gather intel that could be used against the leaders of Iran, and when that responsibility was passed on to Levinson, he made the risky journey to meet an American-born terrorist, an assignment from which he never returned. Meier presents a moving account of Levinson's family, who struggle to come to terms with his still unresolved fate and are desperately trying to get the U.S. government to help find him, while shining a much-needed light on the murky world of private intelligence contractors.

April 15, 2016
The unsettling tale of Bob Levinson, a private investigator gone missing in Iran.New York Times reporter Meier (Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death, 2003, etc.) does admirable work in tying together the threads around Levinson's 2007 disappearance, which has received sporadic coverage alongside the thorny relationship between the United States and Iran. For years, writes the author, "the explanation that U.S. government officials were giving out publicly to explain Bob's reason for visiting Iran wasn't true." Levinson, a retired FBI agent with a large family, was supplementing his income as an international corporate investigator focused on product counterfeiting by marketing information to the CIA's Illicit Finance Group. His handlers, who would deny the relationship after the disappearance, greatly valued his raw intelligence: "A 'gold mine, ' that's what the CIA was calling him." Traveling to an Iranian coastal island to meet with a notorious American fugitive, Levinson's disappearance escalated into a diplomatic morass, with the FBI reluctantly investigating the CIA's initial obfuscation and Levinson's grieving family and friends making their own inquiries. The prevailing assumption was that Levinson was seized by Iranian intelligence, whose "agencies believed there was no such thing as a retired FBI agent." Throughout the book, the case takes dramatic turns, including a tense meeting between Levinson's wife and the Iranian U.N. ambassador; the censure of his handlers, "the strongest disciplinary actions taken by the agency in decades"; and the scandal from the exposure of the agency's role. However, Levinson remained out of reach. Meier constructs a clear narrative that still becomes convoluted, as individuals from the U.S., Europe, and Iran insert themselves and their shady motivations into the mystery. He relies heavily on written communications between Levinson, his friends and handlers, and his pursuers, which adds documentation but also slackens the pace. A chilling real-world espionage yarn.

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May 1, 2016
During a highly publicized prisoner exchange between Iran and the U.S. in January 2016, four Americans were finally returned to their homes after years of unjustifiable imprisonment. Much to the dismay of his family, however, Robert Levinson, a well-known former FBI agent-turned-CIA contractor who disappeared in 2007, was not among them. Although a video verifying his Iranian confinement surfaced in 2013, his current whereabouts and overall status still remain unknown. In this comprehensive and sometimes chilling report on the circumstances surrounding Levinson's disappearance and subsequent efforts to find him, New York Times reporter and Pulitzer finalist Meier turns Levinson's story into a case study on the complicated and politically messy nature of modern-day espionage. Wading into the thicket of Levinson's many intelligence-related contacts, including criminal informants, Meier untangles the puzzle behind the FBI career man's shift from investigating counterfeit cigarette sales for Philip Morris to becoming a CIA contractor in Iran, where the agency's presence had been drastically curtailed. A sharply written, if often unsettling, expose of the contemporary intelligence world.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

Starred review from June 1, 2016

Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times reporter Meier (Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death) shares the story of Robert "Bob" Levinson's capture in Iran. Levinson was an FBI agent who specialized in finding informants to infiltrate criminal organizations. After he retired from the bureau, he became an independent consultant and began to work for the CIA. In 2007, he flew from Dubai to the small Iranian island Kish to meet a potential Iranian informant. This would be the last time anyone would see Levinson for four years, at which time a video surfaced that showed him talking to the camera as a hostage. Levinson's family, colleagues, CIA handlers, as well as Russian oligarchs, arms dealers, and a secret religious society tried to secure his release. Levinson's emails, notes, and files were used by Meier to reconstruct the last months before the kidnapping and the events leading up to the present. The story reads like a spy thriller, including betrayal, incompetence, failed negotiations, and cover-ups from government officials. VERDICT Fans of espionage accounts, both fiction and nonfiction, foreign policy, and FBI and CIA clandestine operations will be engrossed by this work. [See Prepub Alert, 11/9/15.]--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2015

In 2007, FBI agent-turned-private investigator Robert Levinson vanished in Iran, but it was not until late 2013 that the general public learned he was there on a mission for the CIA. Once he appeared on video, dressed like a Guantanamo prisoner and pleading for America's help, the rescue effort began. From a two-time George Polk Award winner who reports for the New York Times.

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2016

Pulitzer Prize finalist and New York Times reporter Meier (Pain Killer: A "Wonder" Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death) shares the story of Robert "Bob" Levinson's capture in Iran. Levinson was an FBI agent who specialized in finding informants to infiltrate criminal organizations. After he retired from the bureau, he became an independent consultant and began to work for the CIA. In 2007, he flew from Dubai to the small Iranian island Kish to meet a potential Iranian informant. This would be the last time anyone would see Levinson for four years, at which time a video surfaced that showed him talking to the camera as a hostage. Levinson's family, colleagues, CIA handlers, as well as Russian oligarchs, arms dealers, and a secret religious society tried to secure his release. Levinson's emails, notes, and files were used by Meier to reconstruct the last months before the kidnapping and the events leading up to the present. The story reads like a spy thriller, including betrayal, incompetence, failed negotiations, and cover-ups from government officials. VERDICT Fans of espionage accounts, both fiction and nonfiction, foreign policy, and FBI and CIA clandestine operations will be engrossed by this work. [See Prepub Alert, 11/9/15.]--Jason L. Steagall, Gateway Technical Coll. Lib., Elkhorn, WI

Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.