Book Discussion: Levon’s Trade

A Vigilante Justice Thriller: Book 1 by Chuck Dixon

There is nothing quite like the quiet man with understated menace. The well-manicured fellow in a $5000 suit and wire-rim glasses nursing a beer in a biker bar and the bikers keep glancing nervously at him.  A new guy in leathers walks in and starts swaggering up to the table looking for some fun and the other bikers start frantically shaking their heads no at him. The man glances up sharply and the new man decides that, yes he does in fact need to be somewhere else after all.

Levon Cade is very much in this tradition.  He is a sort of Repairman Jack character.  An everyman who doesn’t look at all dangerous, unless he suddenly does.

Levon Cade is the star of a twelve-book series by comic book legend Chuck Dixon, whom I have been reading since I was in college during the Eighties. I was initially more aware of his titles like Airboy and Evangeline than I was the writer himself (I was young).  But eventually, I demonstrated a modicum of sense and started paying attention to the name of the writer.  This was back when the comic book rockstar was becoming a mainstream thing.  Sure, comic book readers might have been aware of Dennis O’Neil, Stan Lee or Steve Ditko but it didn’t get out of the family.  When Dark Knight and Watchmen came along it finally did. 

Chuck wrote action stories but he always managed to inject a little something more that turned characters that should have been cliches into something more.

This is what he does with Levon Cade. Initially, everyone in this book when you first meet them feels like cliches but the more they suffer the more you find out that there is more there than you at first thought.  The more they suffer, the more human they become.

The book starts out with Levon working security at a construction company.  His boss comes to him with a problem, his college-aged daughter vanished three weeks ago.  The cops didn’t find anything and didn’t seem to take it seriously.  The detectives he hired came up dry and he’s getting desperate.  He’ll pay Levon 50K to find her.  And Levon turns him down.  Now, this isn’t a Hero’s Journey making the Refusal.  He had miles of life down secret roads with organizations so clandestine they don’t have names and when you’re recruited you’re told to be at such and such parking lot at a certain day and time, and have no military identification on you.

However, when Levon’s wife died his father-in-law needed someone to blame and he never like Levon anyway.  He’s got money and influence and is determined to take legal custody of Levon’s daughter away from him. 

Up against 21st-century lawfare, Levon decides he has no choice but to accept his boss’ offer.  He goes down to Florida because of course this college girl went there on spring break to get in trouble.  

The kid that bagged her, Dimi, is the son of a Russian mafia don.  Although, not a favored son, and not a Made Man (or whatever the Russians call it) consequently when Levon starts making serious trouble for them, the various warlords are very much in favor of giving him Dimi.  It won’t be that easy because it’s never that easy.

Levon’s Trade is exactly what it needs to be, a violent action novel and a real page-turner.  I don’t normally finish a book at three in the morning but I had to do it for this one. 

This was a book that delivered what I was expecting from it. However, I do have some notes. It has nothing to do with structure, pacing, characters, prose, and certainly nothing to do with action scenes, those were what I wanted out of this book and The Legend delivered. But I kept running into things that made me think the book was written in the mid-to-late 2000s.  You have the same thing when Harry Dresden is complaining about how his answering machine doesn’t work for him in the early Dresden books. Some things felt a little dated. Don’t let it bother you, it was fine for when it was written.   Except this was written in 2021.  Regardless, these are minor hiccoughs and do not affect the superb quality of the rest of this high-intensity story that is very much in the vein of The Punisher.  

Which I’m not going to tell you any more about. 

Levon’s Trade is on Kindle Unlimited so if you have that, then what are you waiting for?  It’s also available in paperback and audio. Now for those of you who are saying, “Nah, I’ll wait for the movie,” I have good news. 

The movie is coming out at the end of March. It looks surprisingly strong.  The talent behind this are all first-chair Hollywood veterans. David Ayer the director of the pretty damn brilliant WWII movie Fury is helming this one.  It’s being produced by Sylvester Stallone and lists as writers, Stallone, Ayer, and The Legend himself Chuck Dixon.

It stars Jason Statham who is hot off a surprisingly big win with The Beekeeper, and has been perfectly cast as an old operator who just wants to hang up his guns and have a life in the Real World. His sparring partner will be veteran British heavy Jason Flemyng. David Harbour (Stranger Things) will be playing the pivotal role of Cade’s mentor, Gunny Lefferty. This is providing me with a rare experience these days, looking forward to a movie. Have a look!

In conclusion, Levon’s Trade is everything you demand when you hear the name Chuck Dixon. Levon’s Trade is a roller coaster ride with triple inversions that will be the start of a ferocious new addiction for you if you crack open page one. You’ve been warned.

The Dark Herald Recommends with Enthusiasm