Missing Man

"Barry Meier provides a fine-grained chronology of the so-far fruitless efforts to persuade Iran to release Levinson, efforts that take in arms dealers, the U.S. National Prayer Breakfast, Russian oligarchs and an angry Kurd . . . Constructed as a nonfiction thriller, Missing Man is at its core a tragedy, Death of a Salesman in the Persian Gulf."—Karl Vick, Time

"Barry Meier’s new book, Missing Man, catalogues how Iranian and U.S. officials knew far more about Levinson’s disappearance than previously acknowledged . . . Meier is a prize-winning, thoughtful journalist who has followed this story closely and written about it extensively in the New York Times. Which is a good thing, because the cast of shadowy characters and cameo appearances (including, bizarrely, one by 1990s actress Linda Fiorentino) makes the convoluted story tough to follow. Questionable players with questionable agendas create such a sordid tale that the only people you feel for are Levinson’s heartbroken family."—Valerie Plame, The Washington Post

"[An] important and troubling new book . . . Judging by Meier’s account. if ever there was a case for blowing up the CIA and starting over, as many agency oldtimers have argued, the Levinson affair is it."—Jeff Stein, Newsweek

"The CIA’s side of this story remains classified. Barry Meier’s book, Missing Man, provides more than enough information to make sense of Mr. Levinson’s tragic trip to Kish, a freewheeling entrepôt where Americans may visit without visas and where Iranian security forces seized the American, imprisoned him, and taunted his family and former colleagues with pictures of him disheveled and wasting away. Mr. Meier, a New York Times reporter who has covered this story for years, limns a depressing picture of the amateurish, voracious intelligence appetites of some in the CIA."—Reuel Marc Gerecht, The Wall Street Journal