May 2, 2016
New York Times reporter Meier crafts a gripping account of the life and disappearance of Bob Levinson, a DEA and FBI agent turned PI, who vanished in Iran in 2007. Levinson's work for the Feds gave him a wealth of experience with complex investigations, including cases against the Mafia, Colombian drug cartels, and Russian organized crime, through which he made important connections in the world of intelligence gathering. That background came in handy when he entered the private sector in 2004. Before long, he was retained by the CIA to assist a new unit focusing on illicit international finance, a group that found his comprehensive reports educational and invaluable. By 2006, the Illicit Finance Group had been tasked to gather intel that could be used against the leaders of Iran, and when that responsibility was passed on to Levinson, he made the risky journey to meet an American-born terrorist, an assignment from which he never returned. Meier presents a moving account of Levinson's family, who struggle to come to terms with his still unresolved fate and are desperately trying to get the U.S. government to help find him, while shining a much-needed light on the murky world of private intelligence contractors.
June 15, 2016
Meier (Pain Killer: A Wonder Drug's Trail of Addiction and Death) reveals the sordid tale of the U.S. government's inept and inadequate attempts to rescue former FBI agent Robert Levinson from captivity in Iran. Levinson, the longest held hostage in U.S. history, disappeared in 2007 while on a mission for the CIA. After years of denying any knowledge of Levinson, the CIA was forced to admit its association with him after documents were disclosed proving the relationship. In the years that Levinson has been missing, several other Americans held captive in Iran have been released after concessions to the Iranian government. Friends and relatives of Levinson have done everything possible to keep his plight at the forefront, but since his last sighting in a 2013 video, his friends and family don't know if he is dead or alive. This book describes many attempts to learn Levinson's whereabouts and his status. The sleuths include journalists, retired and current FBI and CIA operatives, arms dealers, gangsters, Russian oligarchs, and family members. Ray Porter's compelling narration keeps listeners engaged in this complex, riveting tale. VERDICT This work will engage lovers of true crime and mysteries and those with an interest in relations between the United States and Iran. ["Fans of spy thrillers, both fiction and nonfiction, foreign policy, and FBI and CIA clandestine operations will be engrossed with this work": LJ 6/1/16 starred review of the Farrar hc.]--Ann Weber, Los Gatos, CA
Copyright 2016 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.