City of the Sun

Starred review from January 14, 2008
Screenwriter Levien's debut crackles with raw intensity as it hurtles from a placid Indianapolis suburb to a dingy Mexican outpost. Paul and Carol Gabriel are devastated when their 12-year-old son, Jamie, disappears on his paper delivery route one morning. Fourteen months later and with the police no closer to finding Jamie, they hire PI Frank Behr, an imposing ex-cop with a checkered past. Behr soon discovers that Jamie's disappearance was no random grab but part of a larger operation run by Riggi, a real estate tycoon who deals in everything from drugs to stolen children. Reluctantly allowing Paul to accompany him, Behr tracks Riggi's men to Mexico, where he and Paul discover the true extent of Riggi's depravity as they race against the clock to find Jamie. Levien expertly weaves a subplot involving the tragic death of Behr's own young son into the complex kidnapping story, and the moments shared between the two grieving fathers are heartbreaking. Fans of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch will be particularly delighted.

January 15, 2008
Jamie Gabriel lives in a community where boys still have paper routes; that is, until he and his bike vanish while delivering papers early one morning. His parents, Paul and Carol, report his disappearance to the police, but after a brief search leads nowhere, the authorities move on to other cases. More than a year later, on the advice of one of the deputies, the parents hire private investigator and former cop Frank Behr. Behr brings some baggage to the table; he's divorced, and his son is dead. While he empathizes with the tragedy of not knowing what happened to Jamie, he is hesitant to take the case, warning that closure will undoubtedly be ugly. Tormented by the strain of having a missing child, Paul and Carol each try to cope in their own way, and their marriage suffers for it. Eventually, Paul starts working with Behr, and despite the cold trail, their quest leads them to some very troubling answers and a somewhat predictable ending. Nevertheless, in his fiction debut screenwriter Levien (who cowrote "Ocean's Thirteen", "Runaway Jury", and "Rounders") captures the hopelessness of the situation well, the pacing is relentless, and the story gripping and altogether disturbing. Highly recommended for all fiction collections. [See Prepub Alert, "LJ" 11/1/07.]Stacy Alesi, Boca Raton, FL

Copyright 2008 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 15, 2007
Jamie Gabriel, a 12-year-old, is snatched from the streets of a pleasant Indianapolis suburb as he delivers newspapers. Paul and Carol Gabriel, his parents, are nearly shattered by his disappearance, and 14 months later, enraged by the desultory efforts of the police, they meet private investigator Frank Behr. A knowledgeable former cop who still mourns the death of his own son, Behr offers them little hope but agrees to take the case. Painstaking investigation leads him to one of the kidnappers, but Behr discovers that whatever closure is possible for the Gabriels lies in Mexico. ScreenwriterLevien has created a first-rate suspense novel. His characters are vividly and fully realized. Each is given a kind of humanity, from the grieving parents and the loner PI to the dangerous losers who do the kidnapping. The erosion of the parents marriage as they turn inward is painful but artful. The tension increases page by page. Serial readers of suspense fiction are the target audience here, but readers simply looking for a well-crafted novel will also find much to enjoy.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2007, American Library Association.)