Ben Swift

Son of the Mob

Gordon Korman

All Pages

6 of 10

Vince Luca is 17 high school student and also the son of Boss in the New York mob. Vince doesn't want any part of his fathers business, but through out the book he is constantly reminded what his father does for a living. Things get worse when he finds out that his new girlfriend, Kendra Bightly, is the daughter of the FBI agent that is trying to send Vince's father to jail.

Vince gets more mixed up in his father's business when he is approached by “Jimmy Rat" the towns low life. Jimmy Rat has a severe gambling debt, and he owes some money to some of Vince's "uncles". So Vince being the nice guy he is ends up loaning Jimmy a small amount of money, thinking everything will be alright.

t Jimmy has a friend who also owes money a debt he is willing to pay. But he is going to pulling the plug on his great aunt in order to get his inheritance to pay it off, wow what a guy huh? Vince feels that he has no choice but to help him as well. At the same time things with his relationship are heading down hill, Kendra's father shows Kendra pictures of Vince with the two mobsters she realizes what’s happening. Then Kendra breaks up with Vince, thinking that because he was in those pictures he’s a mobster, but she doesn’t know he wants nothing to do with his father business. To make matters worse, Vince realizes that the two losers are borrowing money in order to pay back a man who is working for his father, making a never ending money circle in which his father gets richer and richer and the men get poorer and poorer. He confronts his father about this.

Later on Vince finds out that one of his "uncles" is an FBI informant. He confronts him, telling him that if he leaves that he will not be pursued if he joins the witness protection program. In gratitude, the uncle explains the situation to Kendra, Kendra feels awful and they get back together. After an explosive argument, Vince's father cannot help but be impressed by Vince's bold action in finding the mole and helping Jimmy Rat, and their relationship is saved.

Although I do like mob stories I didn’t like this one it was easy to predict and to me doesn’t really capture the whole mob life. I know the main Vince isn’t in the mob but when I picked the book I was looking for a little bit more and I was just disappointed.