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Twelve-year old Jamie Gabriel is abducted from the streets of suburban Indianapolis while doing his morning paper round. He has been snatched by a couple of low-level but exceedingly unpleasant hoodlums who 'groom' him for delivery to their employer. Jamie's distraught parents despair of the police taking any effective action, and after employing a number of useless investigator's are finally given the name of Frank Behr. Frank Behr is a divorced ex-cop bearing an enormous load of guilt and regret over the death of his own son Tim. He picks up the now 14-month cold trail and proceeds to track Jamie's abductors down working his way steadily up, or down, the chain. During the latter stages of the investigation he is joined, against his usual practises, by Paul with whom he forms an unlikely bond. CITY OF THE SUN is a book about which it is difficult to find a great deal to say. The action proceeds from one scene to another at a relentlessly steady pace. There are no surprises, no great tension, no particular depth of characterisation, although some attempt is made with Paul and Linda the parents, and the analysis of the way events effect their relationship is one of the better aspects of the book. Events are described in tedious and in the case of the violence, loving detail (and I mean loving - these descriptions struck me as near to a pornography of violence, far more objectionable than that of the normal kind). Everything felt as though it had been done before - as of course it has. Levien is clearly not a writer to avoid a cliche and they come thick and fast. Much of the book felt cinematic and that is Levien's background - the problem is that cliche works far better on the screen than it does on the page. The book is promoted with an extraordinary claim by Harlan Coben '..a cast of characters who are so utterly real you'll forget you're reading fiction'. Now leaving on one side the fact that I certainly did not forget, what I find extraordinary is that this should be regarded as a merit. If I am reading fiction why on earth would I want to forget I am reading it? If I want true-crime then I will go and purchase a true-crime book. I imagine that my utter opposition to this philosophy probably means I am ill-qualified to review this book. If you are a fan of what I suppose might be termed forensic noir then it is possible that you will enjoy this book, and it is certainly not badly written. However if you look for something more in your mystery fiction - clever plots, poetry, humour, charm, suspense, a gripping narrative, a sociological panorama, psychological depth, any of those things which fiction can attempt - then I don't think you will find it here.
Reviewed by Nick Hay, March 2009
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Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)
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