Thirteen Million Dollar Pop: A Frank Behr Novel - Hardcover

Levien, David

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385532539 ISBN 13: 9780385532532

Publisher: Doubleday, 2011

Synopsis

The acclaimed author of City of the Sun returns with a relentlessly taut new novel featuring enigmatic private investigator Frank Behr and the American heartland setting that has won David Levien critical raves.

In an Indianapolis underground parking structure, Frank Behr is on an executive protection detail for Bernard “Bernie Cool” Kolodnik, a hard-driving business mogul on the verge of making a move into big-time Indiana politics. Behr is working for an exclusive investigation company, and it’s an uncomfortable fit, both literally and philosophi­cally. The uneasy stability is quickly rocked by a burst of automatic weapons fire as an attempt is made on the promi­nent client, and Behr manages to protect him and repel the attackers. Though Behr is celebrated for his heroism, he can’t help but investigate what happened in that garage—and why the Indianapolis cops seem to be burying the incident.

As David Levien has masterfully done in his previous nov­els, he weaves a crime story that is teeming with real charac­ters and electric energy—centered on the brooding psyche of Frank Behr. Thirteen Million Dollar Pop is unyieldingly compelling and will give readers yet another reason to enlist with this superbly talented writer.

About this title

Review

A Letter from Author David Levien

Frank Behr is a maverick. In 13 Million Dollar Pop, I wanted him to have the best reason in the world to try and curb that spirit, to walk the line and hold down a steady job--starting a new family. And then I wanted the circumstances of keeping that equilibrium to quickly become impossible for him. Every one of us, even those of us who don’t happen to be private investigators, face aspects of work and life that don’t jibe with how we want it to be. Behr’s struggle reflects that.

Of course most of us don’t come up against greedy businessman and power hungry players who are willing to stoop to all manner of crime and violence and even the use of malevolent professional killers to get what they want. That’s why Frank Behr is different than you and me. He wrestles with a strict inner code that is often at odds with the world around him, while trying to survive and overcome the animals he encounters in the streets, and if not set things right, then at least find the answers behind why it all happens.

I invite you to take the ride that is 13 Million Dollar Pop and decide for yourself how you’d do in Frank Behr’s shoes.

About the Author

DAVID LEVIEN, author of Where the Dead Lay and City of the Sun, has been nominated for the Edgar, Hammett, and Shamus awards, and is also a screenwriter and director (including co-director of Solitary Man (2009) starring Michael Douglas). He lives in Connecticut. 13 Million Dollar Pop is his third Frank Behr novel—and is on sale August 2011.

About this edition

• Publisher: Doubleday
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0385532539
• ISBN 13: 9780385532532
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 304