Outsourced

The cover for Outsourced by Dave Zeltserman (Kindle Books) is deceptive. At first glance It appears to be a comedic novel. Or one filled with black humor in the Jim Thompson mode. You can imagine a movie version with Tom Hanks. And nothing would be further from what this novel is about. Four out-of-work software engineers decide to rob a bank. One of them, Dan Wilson, had designed the architecture for the bank's security system and knows exactly when the system will go down. It will go down not because of a design flaw, but because the bank decided to use an offshore company to do the coding for the system. Dan has seen the coding, knows it's garbage, and knows the flaws. They've come up with the perfect plan to rob the bank and get themselves out of a financial black hole, but few plans survive contact. Two simultaneous stories run next to the software engineers' scheme. One is that of police detective Alex Resnick, who's suffering from the death of his child and the divorce of his wife. Two, Viktor Petrinko, a former Russian KGB interrogator and now a mob boss of a Massachusetts town. Petrinko has been running the old "protection" racket on local store owners and Resnick is determined to put him away. The mobster also has plenty of cash and documents stashed in safe deposit boxes at the bank the software engineers are planning to rob. And they're the prime target for the robbery. Needless to say, all three stories are going to intersect. With disastrous results. The actual robbery occurs toward the middle of the book. The rest of the novel deals with the aftermath. It would be too much of a spoiler to detail how the robbery goes terribly wrong. Most of the remainder of the novel centers around the mobster, police detective, and Dan Wilson, who's traumatized by what happens. My one criticism with this thriller is the lack of back story for all but a few of the software engineers. Most of the plot centers around Dan Wilson and his family. The other conspirators consist of Shrini Kumar, an Indian expatriate who dreads going back home and having to marry his arranged bride; Gordon, who's pushing sixty and has issues with women, and Joel, who's a gun enthusiast. Joel brings a friend of his into the gang, Eric, but we're never quite sure why. Shrini is the only member who's under fifty. With the exception of Eric, all of these men had worked together in the past and made good money. All suffered in the tech crash after 2000. But you're never quite sure just what they we're doing, other than working night and day for a company that went under. I'd have like some more back story. Zeltserman has said there was more in the original manuscript, but his publisher wanted it and the social commentary toned down for the market. Someday I'd like to see the original manuscript he submitted. This is the first kindle book and second novel I've read by the author. He's now on my "Must Read" list. My standard for judging a novel is the "Pull-In" factor. If I can't put the book down, it qualifies. And Outsourced definitely qualifies. [...]

I enjoyed this book and the writing style very much. I looked forward to seeing where the story would lead.

Dan Wilson is out of work and on the verge of losing his eyesight. With a mortgage to pay and a family to support, he is an ordinary guy desperate for money. He conceives a can't-miss bank heist, enlists the help of some friends, and then--surprise!--things don't go exactly as planned. Dave Zeltserman cleverly and effectively engineers the plot with a steady supply of action and surprises. In sum, OUTSOURCED is thoroughly entertaining noir in a traditional vein.

In New England software engineers Dan and Shrini are fired when their positions are outsourced to India. Middle aged Dan worries for his family as he only brings small change as a freelance contractor and his wife Carol works as a legal assistant though her hours have been cut. He also knows he needs health insurance as he is going blind unless he has surgery. Shrini finds it ironic that he cannot score work in the States, but once home in India will receive outsourcing offers from the same companies who rejected him. After working on a bank security program in which the safety protocols were developed extremely poorly overseas, Dan sees the major flaw. He and Shrini work on a plan to rob the bank. Dan asks his former mentor out of work Joel to join the team, which he reluctantly does, but insists on Eric be on their heist unit so the latter can supply untraceable weapons. The final player is strange Gordon. The scheme is perfect on paper but the execution not so as people die. As the Feds, local cops led by Detective Resnick, and former KGB turned mobster Petrenko search for the money, the thieves struggle with each other and their fears that their families will learn of their crime caper. Dan is the center of this crime caper as an upper middle class good citizen whose life has imploded due to Outsourcing of his job. Ironically the quality of work is irrelevant to the software companies as that takes away from the bottom line leading to the middle aged men (and the younger Shrini) being fired and able to draw up the perfect plan. Readers will feel for Dan. Although Petrenko and several of Dan's cronies are more caricatures seemingly employed to enable the protagonist's woes to stand out further, fans will enjoy this exciting amateur criminal Noir with a powerful poignant coda while the body count will remind readers of the line "War, friend only to the undertaker" from Edwin Starr's War. Harriet Klausner

Once again a winner. You never know where the story is going to end. A true Zeltzerman story that is both interesting and different than other stories. I recommend all his books.

This is the first book I've read by Dave Zeltserman. A decent idea with totally unbelievable characters and unbelievable plot "twists". It's well written and the pace is great. I finished this book not wanting to read another book by Dave Zeltserman.

I can see why this would be an exciting movie. I have read many of David's books and I think this is one of his best

Fabulously believe able. This should be a movie!