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! ( )

Great book with lots of action and suspense.A heart braker with a good ending. ( )

A story of child abduction, and two men who go off in search of the truth. The young boy's father hires a detective who has personal reasons for taking the case, and they both end up in Mexico, on a path that leads them into the dangerous, secretive world of child-trafficking.

The story read smoothly and quickly. The ending was quite abrupt, sort of left me hanging. Overall, a good read. ( )

City of the Sun is a gripping, realistic and gritty crime thriller about a private detective investigating a kidnapping, which occurred over a year back, the trail stone cold. It sounds old hat, but there is a wonderful sense of pace, excellent characterisation and a style of narrative which is seldom found in this crowded genre. Genuinely unpredictable, the story is cleverly constructed, drawing the reader in with punchy short sentences, then filling out the detail later. It's the intriguing and subtle style of writing, and coupled with the terrific plot the result is an awesome and gripping novel. Haunting and realistic, this book will stay with you for some time. Absolutely recommended. ( )

A gritty and suspenseful story, City of the Sun is not one for the squeamish. Eleven year old Jamie disappears while on his early morning newspaper delivery round, the police seem unable or even unwilling to do very much, so Jamie’s’ father Paul eventually hires a PI, Frank Behr. Paul manages to persuade the unwilling Behr to take him along on is investigations and stakeouts. An initially uneasy relationship develops into one of mutual respect as they try to unravel the case.

A gripping story, all the more so as very early it hints at unspeakable possible destinies for young Jamie. Well written, Levien takes the time to give life to all his characters, a devise which while lending a sense of reality to the story also at times inevitably gets in the way of the otherwise fast paced momentum. Such is one’s involvement with the plot that one is tempted to skim quickly over such passages to get back to the main event. Of the characters Paul and Behr quickly engage the reader, and Jamie although we meet him only briefly immediately appeals as a decent young lad.

City of the Sun is a moving and involving story, all the more so because of its sense of reality, both in the telling and in the fact that such terrible things do happen in this world in which we live. One thing is certain, whatever the outcome might prove to be, the reader will be unable to put the book down until he learns of Jamie’s fate. ( )

Have you been to Amazon and read the reviews about this book? Wowzers! It had me pretty pumped up. About a quarter of the way through, I wondered if I read the same book. My version was a MP3 download. I listened to it when I was going to Curves three times a week. Compared to listening to a bunch of ladies cackle, it was great. Compared to other thrillers I’ve enjoyed, it doesn’t stand up. There were too many parts that I found unbelievable. This is also I book I would have skimmed through. I couldn’t do this with the MP3. Well, I could, but I’d run the risk of losing my place and starting all over. My player isn’t the most impressive of models, but I’ve learned to deal.

When I reread what Publishers Weekly had to say, “Fans of Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch will be particularly delighted.”

That must be the problem. I am not a Harry Bosch fan. Really liked THE LINCOLN LAWYER though. When another book comes around by this author, I won't shy away. I will, however, make sure it's audio, preferably CD so that I may use the fast-forward option. You know, just in case.

More about this book and others like it can be found at http://j-kaye-book-blog.blogspot.com/... ( )

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.

Really good book! The characters were amazing and the story is so scary and real that it stayed with me for a while. What happens in this book is something to be taken very seriously and I'm sure that when you are done with it, you'll have a sickening feeling in your stomach and you are gonna rethink how you do things more than once. So, what are you waiting for: READ IT! ( )

For an adult crime novel, Levien's debut novel doesn't disappoint. I did, however, keep thinking of Chris Jordan's Taken, which I read a few weeks ago. The topics were awfully similar, but, hey, there are tons of kidnapping mysteries out there.

A twelve-year-old boy is kidnapped and the local police haven't done too much investigating the past 15 months. So his parents hire an ex-cop, a local private investigator, and leads are investigated. Frank is the kind of investigator everyone admires--gruff and mysterious. He has a secret past that he hasn't come to terms with either, and the investigation culminates in a trip to Mexico.

It was great to read a book set in the suburbs of Indianapolis. I'm really tired of reading about Chicago, New York, and L.A. ( )