Tender Is Levine: A Jack Levine Mystery (Jack Levine Mysteries) (Hardcover)

by Andrew Bergman (Author) "Fritz Stern was a small man with gray eyes, gray hair, and the nervous attentiveness of a refugee who had never stopped escaping..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Sidney Aaron, Boston Blackie (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Don't be surprised if you find yourself thumbing through a mental Rolodex of actors as you read Tender Is LeVine, wondering who would be best suited to play Jack LeVine, Andrew Bergman's circa-1950 private eye. Chevy Chase for his good-natured goofiness? Gene Hackman for his looks and no-nonsense edge? Woody Allen for his innately sardonic Jewish New-Yorkness? Sounds like a crazy amalgam, but Bergman (a film director, screenwriter, and playwright) makes it work, and makes it work well. LeVine himself is a drolly pragmatic character; Bergman's dialogue and settings capture the essence of the era without ever stumbling into clichéd kitsch; and the novel's set pieces and pacing sparkle with admittedly cinematic verve.

And the plot itself is right out of the movies: The Case of the Missing Maestro. When Fritz Stern, second violinist with the NBC Symphony, walks into LeVine's office, declares that the great conductor Arturo Toscanini has been kidnapped and that the symphony is being led by an impostor, and asks LeVine to investigate, the PI is inclined to think his client is a few noodles short of a kugel. But LeVine is a sucker for sincerity and beautiful daughters, and Stern has both. When the violinist is found dead shortly thereafter, guilt and vengeance enter the motivational mix.

At NBC's urging (is it LeVine's imagination or do those corporate execs have something to hide?), LeVine, hot on Toscanini's trail, heads for Havana, where he finds not the maestro but the mob. Just what is Barbara, Stern's aforementioned daughter, doing with organized crime icon Meyer Lansky? In the process of finding out, LeVine is "injected with enough high- octane opiates to scramble a hippo's consciousness" and shipped off to the middle of a Nevada desert. Newly bustling Las Vegas is a place where people arrive with heads full of dreams and leave with pockets full of nothing. It's up to LeVine to figure out how corporate greed, a gifted Italian musician, and mob visions of grandeur all come together against this neon-lit backdrop, and if he can do it without taking a detour to the morgue, he'll be a happy man.

Almost 25 years have elapsed between LeVine's last appearance and this cross-country caper, but I'm betting that newly smitten fans won't want to wait that long again for an encore. "I'm sorry, Mr. Spielberg, but Mr. Bergman isn't taking any calls. He's working on his next LeVine novel." We can hope, can't we? --Kelly Flynn

From Library Journal
A Jewish violinist in the 1950 NBC Symphony Orchestra claims that director Arturo Toscanini has been kidnapped and replaced with an imposter. Jack LeVine, a fortyish, independent New York City PI, hardly has time to launch an investigation before someone murders the violinist. Alleged connections to organized crime lead Jack to Havana, where he hopes to discover the maestro's whereabouts. Jack subsequently embarks on an affair with the violinist's beautiful daughter and gains the help of a primo mobsterDher former lover. A complicated protagonist, realistic Cuban and New York City surroundings, and a fascinating initial hypothesis should endear this to fans of the PI genre. Recommended for most collections.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 289 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (February 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312262051
• ISBN-13: 978-0312262051
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,236,244 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good read, January 19, 2001

By	Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews (#1 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

In 1950 Midtown Manhattan, NBC Symphony second violin Fritz Stern visits private investigator Jack LeVine. Fritz, who has been with the symphony for over a decade, firmly believes that someone kidnapped the renowned conductor Arturo Toscanini. Stern bases his assessment on the fact that the great conductor could not remember the evening's program when the symphony performed for President and Mrs. Truman. Still a paying client is a client so Jack accepts the case.

Stern tells Jack to start with the nasty Sidney Aaron, NBC vice president for Special Programming. Following that meeting, Jack concludes something is not right at NBC. However, things turn ugly when someone kills Stern. Jack stays with the case, which takes him to Cuba and the Mafia, but not any closer to learning the truth even with his life now on the line.

TENDER IS LeVINE is a fabulous historical mystery that works because Andrew Bergman makes 1950 seem so real that it in turn anchors the mystery and Jack. The story line is fast-paced and the investigation is fun to watch, but this tale belongs to the period as history has never unfolded any better than this superb detective tale.

Harriet Klausner