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City of the Sun: A Novel
David Levien

Doubleday, 2008 - 320 pages

average customer review:based on 30 reviews
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   highly recommended  highly recommended





Great Thriller

This was an EXCELLENT thriller! I haven't previously read anything by David Levien, but I'm going to check out and see if he has any other titles.

I was a little leery of the story at first, since it deals with the disappearance of a child, but the characters are so real and engaging that I was quickly sucked into the story.

This is a read that kept me up late to finish it, and I highly recommend it!


Picky reader loves it.

City of the Sun: A Novel This was recommended to me but I resisted for a while. Wow am I sorry. This is an award deserving book. Brilliant writer, no wasted words, great characacter portrayal and he has a way to make you feel the raw emotions running throughout this novel. Can't wait for his next work.


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Compelling

The situation in "City of the Sun" is gripping and the story chugs along at a terrific pace. Frank Behr is a keeper and his sense of determination is palpable. The writing is blunt. If you're looking for flowery prose, seek elsewhere. "Behr banged his palms flat on the table, causing silverwawre to jump and rattle. Paul's salad bowl capsized and the restaurant went silent for a moment. Behr felt his pulse throb in his neck. He fought for control and for air." The plot gains strength as Behr and the father of the missing boy join forces, then sags a bit as they wind up for the final assault on evil, which we know all along they will encounter. I think the book would have seemed that much stronger if the police had done an exhaustive job of finding the missing boy and if the contempt between Behr and his former boss was a bit more original. Behr is fighting lots of demons; those demons needed to have as much grit and reality as many of the evocative images that stitch this plot together. Finally, I would have liked a final few scenes that tell us how Paul's wife (Carol) fared at the end. That thread is left dangling.


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A New PI

Jamie Gabriel disappears early one morning and after a year little has been discovered by the police. Then a kind-hearted cop slips Jamie's father a worn business card of an ex-cop now PI. Despite various failed efforts by other investigators, the father, Paul Gabriel, approaches Frank Behr, and we are introduced to a new hard-boiled PI, the latest in a long line of hard-hitting, introspective PIs with a somewhat failed background, no matter how able they are.

Behr makes it a practice not to accept hopeless cases, and after 14 months, he know the leads are ice cold and there is little likelihood of either finding Jamie or uncovering what happened to him. But something in his background--he lost his own son--moves him to undertake the assignment. And, thus, we are led down a somewhat tortuous path as Behr doggedly finds facts and leads.

It is a gripping tale, well-told. Behr is a complex antagonist full of the knowledge of his profession, but haunted by his own history and self-doubts. Dogmatic to an extreme, he can soften and relent, especially when Paul insists on getting involved, forcing Frank to break a fundamental rule.

The book is highly recommended.



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read this book!!!!!

some of the reviews say that 'the issue is the simpleness of how the p.i. and the father get from place to place' or 'the way they move things along. I vehemntly disagree. The way the P.I. figures out how to get to the place where things start moving, after months of dead ens, is incredible. and then he continues in novel ways to get to the end.

the story of a missing boy and the reason for his being abducted: for men who like young boys, gave me the willies and i did skip sentences so i wouldn't have to envision what happened to him BUT the ending is fabulous.

yes there was too much devoted to what was going on withe the parents and their marriage but so what. The main character is definately one for a series. I loved, loved this book and couldn't put it down.


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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6



Riveting suspense in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly, City of the Sun introduces retired detective Frank Behr?an imposing, charismatic former cop who agrees to take the case of a boy who?s been missing for over a year.

Jamie Gabriel gets on his bike before dawn to deliver newspapers in his suburban Indianapolis neighborhood. He is twelve years old. Somewhere en route, as the October sky lightens, he vanishes without a trace.
Fourteen months later, Paul and Carol Gabriel are on the verge of abandoning all hope. Crushed by frustrating dead ends and exhausted by a police force that cannot (or will not) find their son, the Gabriels finally find a ray of hope: the name of an elusive private investigator who may represent their last chance.
Frank Behr is an enigmatic mountain of a man, a former cop who wants to help?but knows better than to give the Gabriels any hope of a happy ending. He has worked this kind of case too often. But Paul?s plea stirs up old personal demons that Behr can no longer ignore. Going against everything he fears, Behr enters into an uneasy partnership with Paul on a quest for the truth that is, in turn, dangerous ? and haunting.
Richly textured and crackling with suspense on every page, City of the Sun weaves a moody narrative that hinges on the bond between a damaged detective and a lost father. From the antiseptic comforts of suburban Indianapolis to the city?s seamy underworld, David Levien introduces a private investigator as complex, idiosyncratic, and sympathetic as any in modern crime fiction. Levien is a gifted storyteller who will keep readers guessing right up until the final, explosive scene.




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