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| City of the Sun | 
 enlarge | Author: David Levien
Publisher: Bantam Press
Category: Book
List Price: £10.00
Buy Used: £3.50
You Save: £6.50 (65%)
New (24) from £3.50
Avg. Customer Rating:  76 reviews
Sales Rank: 102659
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 320
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2
ISBN: 059305931X
EAN: 9780593059319
ASIN: 059305931X
Publication Date: June 17, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: read once excleent condition
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| Customer Reviews: Read 71 more reviews...
Fast pace, bit clunky in places October 2, 2008
If you're a fan of US crime thrillers, this is probably worth a try. David Levien is a screenwriter, so the pace is fast, and it's hard to put this book down. His writing, as you would expect, is a model of clarity, and you can see each scene so clearly in your head you could actually be watching a movie.
There are some flaws. The characters are a bit stereotypical - they could have come straight out of a Hollywood movie. Having said that, they aren't badly depicted, just not particularly original. Occasionally I felt the descriptions of the scene were a bit clunky - a chunk of description at the beginning (like you would get with a film script) rather than sliding the relevant details into the text gradually. But it's a minor flaw, because the plot keeps going, so I doubt most readers will even be aware of it.
I also felt the book lost it's way a little at the end. The best action scene of the book, involving the main bad guy, takes place a bit before the end. The scenes that followed it lacked a bit of the edge of the earlier ones. The final page also seemed a bit weak - I can't say too much without giving the plot away, but I felt it was a bit flat, and lacked a bit of appeal to the emotions of the readers, given that this was a book about a child abduction.
I should stress though, that whilst these flaws detract from the story, they do so in a minor way. This book is still a real page-turner, and I will definitely be buying the next one by this author.
Worth the wait October 1, 2008
I didn't think I was going to enjoy this book as it took me quite a while to get in to it. However, once I did - I thoroughly enjoyed it and found it very hard to put down. The story deals with the disappearance of a young boy whist out on his paper round. The parents of the child believe that he has been kidnapped but the police treat the disappearance as simply a runaway. After a year with no trace of the boy, the parents hire a private investigator. It was at this point that I really got in to the story.
It is difficult to review a thriller such as this one without giving anything of the storyline away. Suffice to say, if you generally enjoy reading thrillers, then this one will have you enthralled. And having seen other reviews about this book, it would seem that the majority of readers are gripped from the start, but I did find it a little slow in the beginning.
Gripping and tense - a real page turner September 26, 2008
I got this as I thought the plot looked quite intriguing, even though I'm not a huge crime genre fan.
However, from pretty much the first chapter, I was hooked. I ended up reading the book very quickly, as I was struggling to put it down.
Don't want to give too much of the plot away, but the basic premise is a boy being abducted, and his parents hunt to have him back.
The plot rattles along at a cracking pace, and there are barely any chapters that can be seen as filler, if anything things move on all a bit too quickly. But when you're hooked, as I was, this is obviously a good thing.
One minor quibble was that I thought the finale was a wee bit of a stretch - again, trying not to give too much away, it seemed a big proposition for the investigator.
but that is a fairly minor point. Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the book, and would recommend it to anyone, whether they like this genre or not.
 Movie in the Making. September 26, 2008
Given David Leveins background as a Hollywood writer it should be little surprise that this is a quite cinematic study. The book itself it well written and genuinely unputdownable. The pain of the parents of the missing boy is realistically rendered and the private detective Behr is a little cliched as the world weary ex cop. Great story well written and paced, you are always guessing as to how the tale will turn out.
This will make an excellent slightly noir movie in the vein of Mystic River and given the write I think there is a real chance.
Gripping crime drama from start to finish September 18, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
It normally can take me a good month or two to read a novel, and the fact I managed to finish this in just a few days is testament to the quality of the writing and plot in this book.
It's a good pace of plot development from start to finish, no wishy-washy chapters exist in the writing at all, and a real sense of character is achieved from early on. It's easy to read and you soon find yourself completely engrossed in the plot.
As it is based around child abduction and the seedy world that encompasses this crime, the subject matter may offend a younger or more sensitive reader. The author however does not skirt around the issues and this unrelenting writing style contributes to the authenticity of the book.
Highly recommended.
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