cover image Thirteen Million Dollar Pop: A Frank Behr Novel

Thirteen Million Dollar Pop: A Frank Behr Novel

David Levien. Doubleday, $24.95 (320p) ISBN 978-0-385-53253-2

At the start of Levien's less than compelling third Frank Behr novel (after Where the Dead Lay), the Indianapolis PI and a wealthy businessman client, Bernard Kolodnik, are nearly killed in a parking garage gunfight. Frank is eager to find the shooter, but both Kolodnik and Frank's bosses at the Caro Group, a security company that's been keeping him steadily employed, tell him to let it go, particularly after the governor nominates Kolodnik to fill a recently vacated U.S. Senate seat. Never one to follow orders, Frank begins digging and discovers Kolodnik's connection to a recent real estate project%E2%80%94a combination horse track and casino known as a "racino"%E2%80%94that's hemorrhaging money. Everyone involved is slowly sinking under the million-dollar losses, but Kolodnik manages to somehow keep his hands clean. Meanwhile, a Welsh hit man is prowling the streets, waiting for the chance to finish what the parking lot shooter started. Despite the violence around him, Levien's laconic hero remains oddly unemotional. (Aug.)