Son of the Mob

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. The Mafia (Chapter 1)

2. Alex (Chapter 1)

3. A vending machine business (Chapter 2)

4. Ray Francione (Chapter 2)

5. Football (Chapter 3)

6. New York City (Chapter 4)

7. Cede (Chapter 4)

8. He works for the FBI. (Chapter 5)

Short Answer

1. Vince discovers there is a still-living body in his trunk: Jimmy Rat, who owes his father money. Vince feels his family is often involving him in their mob crimes and he doesn’t want to be part of them. (Chapter 1)

2. Vince tries to join football, but the other players will not engage with him because they fear the consequences of playing with a mob boss’s son. (Chapter 3)

3. Tommy realizes that Kendra’s last name is Bightly, which sounds a lot like the insulting name his father made up. Tommy concludes that the FBI agent who bugs his house is Kendra’s father. (Chapter 5)

Chapters 6-10

Reading Check

1. Cat lovers (Chapter 6)

2. Kendra (Chapter 6)

3. A burglary alarm (Chapter 7)

4. Cutting off fingers (Chapter 8)

5. Jimmy Rat (Chapter 9)

6. Return to Sender (Chapter 10)

7. Uncle Pampers (Chapter 10)

Short Answer

1. Vince doesn’t want Kendra’s father to discover he is part of a mob family based on his phone number. (Chapter 7)

2. Vince, after asking for an untraceable phone, decides that all it takes for him to commit criminal activity is to become involved with Kendra. (Chapter 7)

3. Vince tells several lies about the abundance of money he has access to, how he occupies his time, and how he knows several of the characters in the novel. (Chapter 10) 

Chapters 11-15

Reading Check

1. From his credit card (Chapter 11)

2. Ed Mishkin (Chapter 12)

3. Alex (Chapter 13)

4. Romeo and Juliet (Chapter 13)

5. Platinum Coast (Chapter 14)

6. Ray (Chapter 15)

Short Answer

1. Vince believes Kendra decides to make their relationship public by hanging posters in the hallway to nominate them for homecoming king and queen. (Chapter 11)

2. Vince gets nervous when he realizes he is about to meet Kendra’s FBI father. (Chapter 13)

3. The cat website has unusual, cryptic posts that Kendra suspects are written in some kind of code. (Chapter 14)

4. Kendra has seen photos that were taken by the FBI of Vince and believes he is a loan shark. (Chapter 15)

Chapters16-20

Reading Check

1. Boaz (Chapter 16)

2. His father (Chapter 16)

3. Alex (Chapter 17)

4. Ray (Chapter 17)

5. On a floppy disk (Chapter 19)

6. Ray (Chapter 20)

Short Answer

1. He hides in the bathroom and will not listen to him. (Chapter 16)

2. Ed and Jimmy burned the businesses down to get out of debt. Jimmy credits Vince with the idea, explaining that he believes Vince subtly indicated he should do that while talking with him in the bathroom. (Chapter 17)

3. Vince tells Ray that if he leaves the mob and quits investigating his father, he will convince his father not to pursue Ray. (Chapter 18)