And now I catch up with all of Chuck Dixon‘s Levon Cade series with the latest two in the series: Levon’s Range and Levon’s Scourge, which are the 11th and 12th. No idea when we’ll see more. Also, it’s being developed into a TV series. We’ll see if it happens and if it’s any good.
Again, Chuck Dixon is a long-time comicbook writer who has worked on a variety of characters at several publishers. I’ve read his stuff on Eclipse Comics’ Airboy series, but he has worked on The Punisher, Batman, and other characters and titles. He did an excellent comic adaption of J.R.R. Tolkien‘s The Hobbit, which I enjoyed and has recently been reprinted. Most recent is the graphic novel Alphacore.
Levon Cade is a former Marine who was involved in black ops. Some have compared it with the Jack Reacher series, but there are differences. Reacher was an MP, but Cade was a black ops soldier.
In the first novel, he got into matters that forced him to go on the run with his young daughter, Merry, his wife being dead. But in subsequent novels, he has had to deal with various bad guys, and these are usually pretty bad people.
Most importantly in the second one, he has the key to possibly billions in stolen money, which both the FBI and Treasury want, and they are hot to find him. But he is always one step ahead of them. That story thread was finished in the seventh novel.
Since early on Levon and Merry have been living in Levon’s old hometown in Alabama with Levon’s uncle Fern. He had gotten involved with a local veterinarian, and her daughter is Merry’s best friend. Plus in the seventh novel, Merry saves a young girl who was trafficked and she has become Levon’s second daughter, Hope.
This is a series that I highly recommend people start with the first volume. While each novel is standalone, each builds off the prior ones.
In Levon’s Range, we find the Cades, along with an Army vet Levon was helping, now living in a remote ranch in Idaho. Due to events in the previous novel, both with the human-trafficking stuff, which resulted in someone coming after them, as well as a dust-up with a rival clan over moonshining, they had to leave their home in Alabama. They are trying to rebuild their lives as a ranch family with some horses and maybe cattle. But trouble always seems to find them. In this case, it’s two troubles. One is someone steals their horses, which leads Levon and his new ranch hand to hunt down the thieves. That leads them to a group of Afghan refugees living in the remote mountains.
The man who had tracked down Levon in the last novel and was left alive is contacted by a mysterious criminal organization looking for Levon. He convinces them he can find Levon again, which he does. But what will come of this? And the local sheriff finds the bodies hidden on the abandoned Cade farm, which brings back in the FBI.
Being from southwest Florida, I did enjoy the brief stuff set there, though I do need to point out it is “Punta Gorda” not “Punta Gordo.”
In Levon’s Scourge, we get a wide-ranging work that could have been two novels. While Levon’s family goes to ground, Levon, now alerted, is going after the criminals after him. But he has to figure out who they are and why they are after him. This takes him around the world, from Idaho to Mexico to southeast Asia.
In the first half, a quartet of assassins comes looking for Levon at his ranch. He takes care of them and works to track back who is behind it. This leads him to Mexico, where with an old friend, he looks for the human smugglers who helped the group get into the U.S. But things go sideways. Can Levon and his friend get out alive? Especially as it’s now not just the first criminal organization, but the cartels. And, we also see what happened to the guy who was tracking down Levon, who bugged out to Alaska. At the end of the first part, both we and Levon have some idea who is after him.
In the second part, Levon now heads to Vietnam to confront the criminal organization and put an end to things. And the FBI is now again after Levon as well. When it is all said and done, are we in a new phase in the lives of Levon and his family? What will come next?
This latest novel was surprising. It could serve as a finale to the series, but it’s not stated as such. A lot of things are concluded, but some matters are left unsaid, so you have to wonder what could come next. We will just have to see.
I have enjoyed the whole series as they are fast-moving with realistic characters. If you haven’t checked out this series, do so.
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