Levon's Want
Book review for the Levon Cade series by the Legend, Chuck Dixon.
One of the best things about the 12 volume Levon Cade series is the presence of fantastic character actors. The three best:
Moe Dat, a hapless young thug who gets his ass handed to him, unceremoniously, by Cade.
Anita Ho, the desk girl at the bad neighborhood auto rental / chop shop.
Lew Dollinger, the whitest cracker alive, who has a sizable role in the last few books as a bottom-feeding, ex-policeman, private investigator, flunky for the seamier side of society.
The series is filled with real men and women. It doesn't matter where you come from, you can picture them. Think of the great character actors in film – Dixon sprinkles them throughout the series. The dialogue is snappy and oftentimes funny, and they orbit Levon Cade as he cuts a swath through the underworld, making things right.
Here's the thing about the Cade series that's great.
Levon Cade wants to take care of his daughter. This is first on the list. Chuck Dixon talks in his podcasts often about storytelling and the craft of writing. His most salient point is that you must know what the character wants. Dixon created Bane, wrote Batman, Robin, The Punisher, and many other comic book series. Batman wants to fight the criminal underworld, as well as atone for his helplessness as a young boy during his parents’ murder. The Punisher wants to kill criminals like they killed his family. A good writer shows this to the reader within a few pages.
Dixon routinely discusses how understanding what a character wants is key to not only keeping a story moving but staying true to the character himself. Levon wants to take care of his daughter more than anything else. This is what makes Levon and Dixon’s series different from the series it’s most compared to - the Jack Reacher series. I don’t know what Reacher wants. He wanders aimlessly, without any family, around the country and gets ‘swept up’ into situations.
Reacher wants to make things right when he stumbles upon things during his post-military odyssey. They're good books. I've read 7 of them, but Chuck Dixon's Levon Cade series is better.
First, it has more fighting. In 11 of the 12 books, you cannot go from 10 to 5 pages without a shootout, a brawl, somebody getting their comeuppance. The books are filled with people acting realistically. Stated differently, they act the way cellar dwelling low lives act while getting their asses kicked by somebody bigger, stronger and smarter.
Books 3 through 10 supply the reader with mainline, direct to the vein, hard core brawling and shooting. Cade (and Dixon) is at his best in his home country of American South. Down in Alabama backcountry you have barely habited valleys with hollers and thumpers - places where they used to make bootleg alcohol, moonshine, bottles of white. Now it’s meth getting cooked in those hidden hills. There are some good places to hide the bodies of people who get killed. They’ll never be found, and Cade uses this to his advantage.
This knowledge comes in handy, because Levon has royally pissed off a powerful international drug crime / theft ring in Book 2. They come after him in his home country. This is a mistake. Because Cade knows every inch of the countryside, he can outwit, outfight, outshoot, out punch, out destroy the people who come into his ambit. They are coming after him and his daughter. They leave him no choice. Not only does he have to treat the local tough guys like the pendejos that they are, but he also must let their overlords know that he is not to be messed with. Take care of his daughter: priority one. Uphold his honor: priority two.
Cade calls in favors from his military past to get out of jams. One interesting twist is when Cade goes to the Middle East to help someone he owes, upholding a years old promise. It isn’t even what Cade wants to do, because he must leave his daughter stateside, but he feels compelled to do it. Cade calls in favors, but he also reciprocates. This gets him imprisoned in a Turkish prison camp. It doesn’t go well.
The Cade series is great. I enjoyed it.
I'll leave you with this. The series begins where Levon is a security guard at a construction site. And because he's ex-military, most-special of special forces, he's the best security guard they’ve ever had. The boss and the Mexican laborers really appreciate Cade’s work.
He’s made sure that all the Mexican drug dealing, coyote running, money-grabbing, extortionist types don't come to the site. The staff work ethic is great. People don't skip work, vanish, steal materials, or worry.
The owner notices. He pegs Levon for ex-military and asks him to go look for his daughter who's gone missing. He recognizes from Cade's appearance and style that Cade is not a regular guy.
That’s the catalyst. What Cade uncovers in book 1, Levon’s Trade, is the spark that gets the whole thing rolling. Books one and two are fantastic. They’re Dixon’s homage to the Slob Hero genre. Like Charles Bronson’s character in Death Wish, Cade plays the role of judge, jury, and executioner … heavy emphasis on the last one. Book two is particularly good because Cade is in a location and in a situation where he simply should not prevail. But he does.
And he takes care of his daughter.
Levon’s Trade has been made into a movie by Sylvester Stallone’s production company, Balboa Productions. Here’s the preview: