Odd Jobs by Ben Lieberman




Starts Out Strong But Changes As The Book Goes Along

Published by Thomas and Mercer in 2013.

Odd Jobs is the story of Kevin Davenport, a financially struggling college student who is working any job he can to pay for college. This summer he is working at Kosher World Meat Factory - it's a nasty job but it pays very well and it will only last a few weeks, right?

 Kevin has to struggle because his family life was shattered years ago when his little sister and his father, a prosecutor, were ran over in a hit and run accident that was never solved. His mom never really recovered from the shock and Kevin is hustling to pay for college. But, he gets a bigger shock when he finds out that one of his connections at Kosher World helped kill his father. The more he digs the more he decides he will get his revenge no matter what.

 *******Warning: SPOILER ALERT!********

 At this point the book completely changes its tone. Rather than being a book about a scrappy lovable loser with some athletic talent and a funny personality, it becomes a dark revenge book in which the lovable loser sells his soul. He needs cash to get revenge so he sells drugs, he operates a sports betting operation (he becomes a bookie), hires guys to offer fake advice to milk gambling addicts with a sports betting service to get even more money. At this point, I wondered what his prosecutor father would have thought about his son breaking the laws and becoming like the organized crime figures that his father was killed for investigating. Way too much detail about dealing drugs and even more detail with lots of slang about the sports betting. I love sports but don't care anything about the betting scene.

 So, if you believe a college student, his two stoner friends and his spunky girlfriend can engineer the fall of a mafia kingpin in just a few months, this is your book.

 **************End of Spoilers*****************

 Note: I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review through the Amazon Vine program.

 I rate this book 1 star out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: Odd Jobs. 

 Reviewed on July 17, 2013.

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