Fatal Odds: A Novel cover art

Fatal Odds: A Novel

A Knight and Devlin Thriller

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Fatal Odds: A Novel

By: John F. Dobbyn
Narrated by: Bill Nevitt
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About this listen

Danger escalates as Michael Knight and Lex Devlin enter into the defense of a Puerto Rican jockey charged with felony murder as a result of a fixed race at Boston's Suffolk Downs.

As their investigation exposes the jockey's role, they become embroiled in a conflict between two Puerto Rican crime gangs. One of these gangs is aligned for the first time with Boston's Italian mafia in tapping into almost limitless profits from the illicit trade of exotic and endangered species of wild animals captured in the Amazon rainforest of Brazil and smuggled through the shoreline of the Florida Keys.

Working to free their client and to prevent the brutal abuse of these vulnerable animals, Michael and Lex find themselves squarely in the crossfire of rival organized crime gangs, from the barrio of Jamaica Plain, Boston, to the gang-dominated streets of Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

©2016 John F. Dobbyn (P)2017 John F. Dobbyn Action & Adventure Crime Crime Thrillers Fiction International Mystery & Crime Mystery Mystery, Thriller & Suspense Suspense Thriller Thriller & Suspense Law Sports Animal Sports Racing Boston

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I enjoyed this book mainly because it was such a different idea for a plot. It was broken up into parts and I did wonder what the Amazon rain forest had to do with horse racing as it seemed like we had stepped back in time but it all came together nicely to make a great story. I know the story is only a work of fiction but it certainly opened my eyes as to what goes on in the world, it's a scary place.
When Michael sees his cousin crash into his brother while racing he had no idea that it would send him on a roller coasters ride where the watches fired guns at you. When his cousin is accused of fixing the race and killing his brother Michael turns to a gang boss in order to find out who would want or need to fix a race, but caught between two rival gangs it soon becomes apparent that race fixing is just the tip of the ice burge. Nobody is safe as drug dealers and animal traffickers come together in an explosive story of greed,betrayal and revenge.
The narrator does an excellent job with all the different accents and bringing the characters to life.

An eye opener

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As their investigation exposes the jockey's role, they become embroiled in a conflict between two Puerto Rican crime gangs.
eye opener about the amazon forest

who would of thought

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This book was well done. It did not give away too many clues as to who was responsible for the murder and the attempt to determine the actual guilty party was done with enough emotion and danger to make it exciting.

The narration was well done.

Surprising

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Really enjoyed this. I was on the fence after listening to the sample, but I’m so pleased I got introduced to this series.
Lots of mystery, intrigue and a fair dollop of action! The story keeps you interested throughout and wraps up nicely at the end!
I’m guessing it would be great to listen to the first few books in order, but I don’t think I lost anything by listening to this first!
Really well narrated, with great character voices, tempo and flow!
I really can’t wait to hear more of these!
This is my honest opinion of a free review copy.

‘The lawyer always goes home’

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You'd be forgiven for thinking that this book is only about horse racing/race-fixing if you judged it by the first couple of chapters alone. In fact, it's about a lot more. Aside from the human/relational aspect, which is fairly portrayed yet not overdone, Fatal Odds stands out from other books of its genre by focussing a great deal of attention on illegal animal trafficking. I liked this aspect of the book, as it served as a counterbalance to the quality of the writing, which, in my opinion, was not good. The narration, on the other hand, was excellent, showcasing Bill Nevitt's talents at their best. This is a challenging novel, as it demands a variation of accents (sometimes more than one accent for a single character) and Bill, pleasingly, meets these challenges head on with success that belies all the hard work he has put into this. This was a pleasant listening experience, over all, and I look forward to hearing more from Bill as this series continues.

Interesting subject matter, excellent narration

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Bill Nevitt is one of the US narrators I tend to like so I picked this up with only a cursory glance at the subject matter and I have to say it was a proper little discovery.
It was very easy to join the series with this fifth instalment although I will now have to check out the first four - the plot is a highly interesting and hard hitting mix of animal smuggling, race fixing and gang wars with a good dash of classic action thriller/ courtroom drama. The characters are well drawn and credible.
Some of the protagonists sounded more Russian than Hispanic but it was still a very enjoyable audiobook.

Great discovery!

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A jockey dies when his brother's horse swerves in front of his own during a race. The brother goes on to win but is then disqualified for causing the accident. But was it really an accident or had the race been fixed? The police want to arrest the jockey for causing the fatality during a felony. The brothers, originally from Puerto Rico, had been very close and were Knight's cousins, The defense lawyer believes that something is very wrong and sets out to find Victor before the police can bring him in He seeks help from an old gang leader he'd known when he had been young and vulnerable. But when this man is also killed, Knight has to find out why.

Fatal odds is an involving and complex thriller, mostly set in the gang lands of Boston but also in Puerto Rico. Lots of bravado, deaths and confrontation as well as plentiful praise for the food which is eaten. This reader had mistakenly expected more legal, in court action but the story, although calling on the powers of the deputy public prosecutor a couple of times, manages to evade almost any mention of the courts. Some very interesting, and concerning, smuggling statistics related and repeated in a brief afterwards comment by the author: it is almost reading the book for these interesting facts alone.

The story was mostly well written although there were occasional contradictions in the text, such as rushing to prevent a guard from escaping from a prison cage despite the door having already been closed. These are all very minor but the book would be better without them. And despite the 'audience's feel that they impart to the characters, the preponderance of Spanish names and sentences - conversation and foodstuffs - for this reader interrupted any story flow that had been generated. The feel good ending could also have been omitted: it served only as a distraction to the impact of the story overall.I

Bill Nevitt, who narrates, was impressive in his unhesitating reading of the Spanish names and dialogue. His voice is pleasant, well articulated and with good intonation. The delivery is rather noir in quality, slightly staccato and, for this reader, fractionally too slow. Increasing the playback seed to 1.25 easily resolved that, however. His voicing of various protagonists was good, each being due to actively individual.

My thanks to the rights holder of Fatal Odds who, at my request, freely gifted me with a complimentary copy, via Audiobook Boom. The story certainly highlighted a most unpleasant yet very profitable aspect of international smuggling which is, if not unknown, at least underestimated in most people's awareness. The fact that it is one of the top monetary returns but goes almost unchallenged is scandalous and this book does a good job in helping to increase public pressure to put an end to this cruel and disastrous trafficking.

Nobody buys a dead monkey.

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Wow! This audiobook is a really powerful story looking at the illegal importing of animals along with drug smuggling and race fixing. This book does not shy away from the horror of what happens to these beautiful animals just because of selfish individuals who put money above everything. The book was fascinating and Bill’s narration as always was perfect for the subject matter and the story. I loved it.

Opens your eyes

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