Author: Ally Carter
Published: February 2010
Publisher: Hyperion Book CH
Series: Heist Society #1
287 pages (hardcover)
If you like stories about con artists and thieves in Ocean’s 11 style, then this is the story for you. It certainly entertained me; I think this book is brilliant and I’m really glad I plucked it off the library book shelf first, haha. (Admittedly, I was intrigued by the cover. It’s a pretty gorgeous cover)!
Fifteen year old Katarina Bishop is trying something new — boarding school. Prior to this, she has never been to school; instead, she had been traveling all around the world with her family doing ‘jobs’, ever since she was three. You see, Katarina’s family are professional thieves, stealing famous artworks, statues, jewels, and the like. But Katarina wants out and thus, conned her way into the best boarding school — her last con, of course. That is, until her dear friend W.W. Hale the Fifth (she (and the reader) never find out what the W’s stand for) took the liberty in getting her expelled from school so that she has to come back to the life. Kat’s father has been accused of stealing five of the most priceless paintings in the world, although for once he is actually innocent. Unfortunately, the victim of the crime is extremely upset, and is threatening Kat’s father’s life unless the paintings are returned. Thus, Kat is needed to plan one more heist job — stealing the stolen paintings — in order to save her dad.
I really loved this story, it was fun to read about Kat and her crew of thieves planning and preparing for the big heist job. It’s supposedly an impossible job because the real person who stole the paintings is even more talented in their profession than them and anyway, I just loved reading about how they get through various types of security systems, how they “borrow” equipment that they need, how they dress up in different identities in order to con information out of people. I love this kind of stuff, it was like this book was written for me! Stories with puzzles of some sort that need to be solved (in this case, how to break in to X place and steal Y) really intrigue me.
The only weird thing was that the crew, including Kat, are all supposed to be around fifteen years old, and I don’t know, I just have a really difficult time envisioning any fifteen year doing these things. Not to mention they just seem way too mature for fifteen (well, most of the characters). Wasn’t a problem though, I just kept imagining them as twenty-something year olds in my head, haha. I really, really loved W.W. Hale’s character (or just Hale, as he is called). First of all, he is sort of mysterious because you never find out what the W’s stand for in this name. Secondly, he is a billionaire whose parents are never home at all, and all he has is his old butler to keep his company, and I don’t know why but that sort of reminded me of Batman (???). Thirdly, he is witty, charming and good looking. He is actually not a thief per se, but he does co-operate with Kat and her crew and help them along (it’s always nice having a billionaire on your side). He and Kat met when Kat tried to steal something from his mansion years ago, I thought that was a cute story. It’s so obvious Hale likes Kat too. Ahh, I really love Hale …
A few scenes were a bit confusing if you read too fast (as I do all too often), but it’s all really exciting. The ending was a tad disappointing because there’s no ‘conclusion’ to Kat and Hale’s relationship and you never find out who stole the paintings originally (which felt like a huge let-down, as if as huge part of the story is just left unexplained) but if you exclude the ending, well, the rest of the book is fabulous.
My Rating: 4.5/5
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