Description:
The Homicide Department is upside down--Richard Christie is in the hospital, Artie Dolan is headed away on vacation, John Potocki's life is falling apart, and Colleen Greer is so worried about her boss's health, she can hardly think. A young boy in Pittsburgh's North Side neighborhood dies of a suspicious overdose. The Narcotics police are working on tips and they draft Colleen and Potocki to help them. In this same neighborhood, four young kids have been abandoned and are living on their own. The Philips kids, brainy in school, are reluctant to compromise themselves. But they need cash. Connecting these people and their stories is Nick Banks, just out of prison and working off a debt to an old acquaintance involved in the drug trade. Nick is a charmer, a gentle fellow who's had a lot of trouble in his life. One day he gives free food to the Philips kids, little guessing how connected their lives are about to become.

Mystery Lovers Review:
Kathleen George pushes the envelope in her latest Pittsburgh-set crime novel, The Odds. Set primarily on the city’s North Side, her ensemble cast, including rookie Colleen Greer and veteran John Potocki, are drawn into a narcotics investigation that leads to four children, abandoned and on their own, trying to survive in an unforgiving neighborhood. A powerful novel that expertly combines social issues with compelling characters.