The Unlikely Career of Sonny B. Feelright

America's Least Likely Hero

When recent MBA graduate Sonny B. Feelright stumbles into a job with a small and dysfunctional investment banking boutique in Chicago, he soon finds himself facing a Faustian choice: further his career and bank account by participating in an illegal takeover in which he's been unwittingly enmeshed, or disclose the illegal plot and face the real possibility of career ruin and even prison as a co-conspirator.

THE UNLIKELY CAREER OF SONNY B. FEELRIGHT is a humorous novel about an awkward but resourceful young man graduating with his MBA during the worst recession in modern history. At a university job fair, Sonny meets the lovely and ambitious Charlotte McCardle, who is recruiting for Blake & Company, LLC, a Chicago investment banking boutique. Following a brief and clumsy interview with Tom Blake, the firm's slick and pushy managing partner, Sonny lands a job as an investment banker, earning a paltry salary and Tom's promises of rich incentives down the road.

Sonny finds himself on a team of professional misfits: Charlotte, supremely competent and outwardly confident, has a compulsive need to meet the expectations of her domineering father; Simon Courtney, a brilliant but cynical industry veteran, seeks solace from his career regrets in a gin bottle; and Tom, a closet cocaine addict, lectures Sonny on the need to "rise above one's principles" in pursuit of riches.

Unbeknownst to Sonny, Tom Blake has been conspiring with evil hedge fund manager Nancy "The Black Widow" Black to stage a hostile takeover of a major public company. Employing fraud and forgery, the conspirators enlist Sonny in their plot.

To save his integrity and himself, Sonny must rely on his wits and the help of his two fragile colleagues, Charlotte, with whom he is falling in love, and alcoholic Simon, Sonny's reluctant mentor. Along the way, Sonny proves to be an unlikely hero, dodging the amorous advances of voluptuous client Carmen Milton as well as Ken, her gay assistant; saving the life of choking insurance mogul Peter Progress with a well timed Heimlich maneuver; and rescuing Charlotte from a variety of near calamities, including a deadly automobile attack and an attempted rape. The book presents a sordid portrait of the world of high finance and the unscrupulous people it attracts, ending with the ultimate confrontation between everyman Sonny and demented Nancy Black, for whom winning is everything.