Heist Society by Ally Carter ★★★☆☆

Cons and Capers

Fiction – YA - Mystery

Reading level: Ages 11 and up  Grade 6–10

287 pages

Publication Date:  February 9, 2010

Heist Society Book 1

Literary awards:  ALA Teens' Top Ten (2010), Goodreads Choice Nominee for Young Adult Fiction (2010)

Kat Bishop’s longest con has just come down crashing around her ears after the intervention of friends from the life she was trying to leave behind.  Three months into her stay at Colgan Boarding she is accused of pulling a prank she had nothing to do with.  Expelled and forced to leave Colgan, Kat’s friend Hale – a sixteen-year-old billionaire play boy with too much time on his hand- brings Kat back into the family con business to save her father from a mob boss who is missing five prized art pieces.  With a two week deadline and a crew of talented teenagers Kat must pull off the biggest heist of her life.

I found the premise of this book very intriguing and the execution adequate.  The idea of a teen who finally escaped the “family con business” only to be pulled back in against her will to match wits against enemies that her elders wouldn’t even take on was very exciting.  (Okay I will admit here for all to see that I was predisposed to like this book.  I love me some cons and capers- The Thomas Crown Affair with the beautiful Pierce Brosnan, Oceans 11, The Italian Job, Leverage and the like.  Sure all of my examples are movies and TV shows but I think the genre can transfer nicely to either book or film form.)  Carter starts right in from the beginning with a very great intro for Kat and Hale, providing background and Kat’s motivation for going to Colgan School.  She then continues on by creating a fascinating world in which Kat’s friends and family are always looking for the next job.  Carter managed to keep me eager to find out what was happening next through the whole book (which is not always easy considering she is competing with two kids, a husband and all the things I need to get done on a daily basis to keep our household running smoothly as possible).

The writing, while not elegant, was readable and very easy to get through.  Carter cleverly uses the two week deadline to pace her chapters and add drama and suspense to the writing.  Carter was very good at getting the mood and feel of a place, but not quite as good at painting a word picture of the different locations.  I found her description a little too generic for my taste

This story starts out as Kat Bishop’s quest to find out who she is beyond her family, but this is only part of the whole story.  Kat’s quest brings her right back to where she started, and in doing so Kat finds a bigger purpose in helping right a decades old wrong.  I like how Carter used Gabrielle in comparison to Kat to show how different people can use very different approaches to achieve the same goal.  Sadly, the blossoming romance between Kat and Hale, while certainly a focal point in their relationship dynamic, felt very artificial.  I hope in the next book it will be a bit more seamless and flow better in the plot line.

ISBN  1423116399 (ISBN13: 9781423116394)