Kaye George gets November and
this Monday off with another thriller review….
Odd Jobs by Ben Lieberman
Let’s start off by saying this
thriller’s cover blurbs are by James Patterson and Donald Trump. That sets the
bar high, but Lieberman attains it.
Kevin Davenport narrates the story in
present tense, starting with his summer job at Kosher World Meat Factory. It
isn’t an ideal job, working with blood and bones and smelly flesh, but it pays
well. He got the job through his association with Jimmy Balducci, a guy with
connections. Kevin, a college student, doesn’t know where he belongs, but knows
it’s not in a meat factory. This is just a summer job for him. Neither does he quite
fit into the privileged stratum of his college classmates. although he used to.
That was before a hit and run driver killed his father, a dedicated DA, and his
little sister when he was ten. The accident took away his way of life until he
obtained a basketball scholarship to a posh school--where he didn’t quite fit
in either.
When Kevin shows up for work hung over,
he’s given an even more miserable work detail than hauling carcasses: The
Tongue Room. He’s treated worse and worse at the factory until he volunteers to
represent the company in a boxing match to redeem himself. He does for awhile.
But an employee turns up dead; mysterious things are happening in the factory;
Kevin doesn’t know who to trust and who’s out to get him; and his seamy odd
jobs get odder and more complicated. Sev, who runs Kosher World, seems to have
it in for Kevin, Balducci’s darling. Even so, Kevin admires the way Sev makes
the factory hum. He doesn’t know who to trust, maybe no one, but knows he has
to fight to remain alive in this world. Whether he belongs to it or not.
This is a thrilling, chilling tale
filled with underworld characters, smoothly told. Look for more from Lieberman,
maybe for more of Kevin, too.
Reviewed by Kaye George, Author of A Patchwork of Stories for
Suspense
Magazine
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