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BookBrowse Reviews City of the Sun: A riveting novel in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Michael Connelly, City of the Sun introduces private detective Frank Behr

City of the Sun
by David Levien
Paperback, Feb 2009,
432 pages.
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Most writing classes say that a good story must capture the reader's interest in the first ten pages. Levien manages to do it in under five. He pulls us in quickly by creating a very likable twelve-year old, Jamie, and then immediately placing him in harm's way. The suspense builds quickly as the scenes repeatedly switch from Jamie on his morning paper route to the abductors in their car. The foreshadowing builds and our worst fears are confirmed when Jamie's bike meets the grill of the car.

Levien's technique of multiple view-points and short tense scenes, which one might attribute to his screen-writing expertise, heighten the on-going suspense and parallel the urgency of a missing child situation.

He gives us a story that offers more than a fast-moving crime plot. It is also a tale of losses - the loss of a child, the loss of innocence, the...
Beyond the Book
The AMBER Alert Program

The AMBER Alert Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and the safe recovery of the child.

Named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996, it is also an acronym for "America's Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response".

In 2001, only two children were recovered due to AMBER Alert. In 2006, 69 children were recovered because of an AMBER Alert. To date, the program has helped save the lives of...
This review was originally published in March 2008, and has been updated for the February 2009 paperback release. Click here to go to this issue.
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