Thirteen Million Dollar Pop

June 27, 2011
At the start of Levien's less than compelling third Frank Behr novel (after Where the Dead Lay), the Indianapolis PI and a wealthy businessman client, Bernard Kolodnik, are nearly killed in a parking garage gunfight. Frank is eager to find the shooter, but both Kolodnik and Frank's bosses at the Caro Group, a security company that's been keeping him steadily employed, tell him to let it go, particularly after the governor nominates Kolodnik to fill a recently vacated U.S. Senate seat. Never one to follow orders, Frank begins digging and discovers Kolodnik's connection to a recent real estate projectâa combination horse track and casino known as a "racino"âthat's hemorrhaging money. Everyone involved is slowly sinking under the million-dollar losses, but Kolodnik manages to somehow keep his hands clean. Meanwhile, a Welsh hit man is prowling the streets, waiting for the chance to finish what the parking lot shooter started. Despite the violence around him, Levien's laconic hero remains oddly unemotional.

June 15, 2011

Indianapolis ex-cop Frank Behr (Where the Dead Lay, 2009, etc.) gets dropped into the middle of a case that promises to end his days as a bodyguard as well.

Frank never thought he was cut out for executive protection. The work is servile, and the Caro Group doesn't pay him well enough to compensate for his issues with authority. But one problem with guarding local developer (and now Senator-designate) Bernard Kolodnik never occurred to him: He might get shot at. The attack comes in a parking garage, and although Behr saves Bernie Cool's life and earns his gratitude, his efforts on behalf of his agency and their client don't get him any traction when he tries to find out who fired the shots and why. In fact, both Karl Potempa, the head of Caro's Indianapolis office, and Shugie Saunders, Bernie's political consultant, are actively thwarting the investigation he's running in defiance of Potempa's command (backed up by Lt. Gary Breslau of the Indianapolis police) to lay off. As Frank staggers along on his own, the forces who wanted Bernie dead bring in Welsh cleanup hitter Wadsworth Dwyer, who in turn calls on Rickie Powell, a good man with an axe, to cauterize the loose ends before Behr can trace them to the top. But even after Caro fires him, Behr turns out to have reinforcements of his own, especially after a horrifying call on Susan Durrant, his pregnant girlfriend, drags Indianapolis cop Eddie Decker, an ex–USMC sniper, into the fray.

A professional-grade actioner that offers compelling evidence for Rickie's dictum: "When pros lock up, everyone gets hurt."

(COPYRIGHT (2011) KIRKUS REVIEWS/NIELSEN BUSINESS MEDIA, INC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.)

March 1, 2011

Hired to protect prominent businessman-turned-political candidate Bernard "Bernie Cool" Kolodnik, private investigator Frank Behr proves his worth by saving Kolodnik when an attempt is made on his life. But he's really not sure what happened when those automatic weapons started blazing, and he's even more suspicious when the police hush up the incident. Levien has Edgar and Shamus nominations to his credit and seems to be building. Thriller fans should definitely investigate.

Copyright 2011 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2011
In Levien's latest, fallout from the Great Recession is affecting almost everyone. Indianapolis' first racino, a combination horse-race track and casino, is going under; Frank Behr, soon to be a father, has very reluctantly left his lone-wolf PI work for a corporate security agency. And even the contract killer who tries to kill the business tycoon Behr is guarding has scrimped, working solo in order to cut costs. Investigation of the unsuccessful attack is squelched, and Behr goes off the corporate reservation to learn why, leading him toward a confrontation with a skilled and vicious ex-mercenary determined to secure his retirement with one more big payday. Levien's first Behr novel (City of the Sun, 2008) was first-rate. His second, Where the Dead Lay (2009), was flawed, but this third effort is a page-turner. The financial desperation that fuels the characters is vivid and plausible. The plot is appropriately convoluted. The body count is respectable, and the result is a ripping-good thriller.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2011, American Library Association.)