Missing Man: The American Spy Who Vanished in Iran

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. (May)