Heist Society is the first book in its series, written by Ally Carter.

What’s it about: In the first of this series, we meet Katrina Bishop, who wants nothing but to leave the family business. She’s skilled at what she does, probably one of the best for her age, but she’s tired of a life of crime, scams, and heists. She manages for a while, scamming her way into a boarding school until an old friend pulls her back in.

Hale, a former co-conspirator of Kat’s needs her help. Her father has been blamed for stealing priceless art from a powerful mobster who will stop at nothing to get them back. To save her father’s life, Katarina reluctantly returns to her life of crime tasked with a mission deemed impossible.

What first caught my attention with this book was actually the author. When I was little and obsessed with secret agents and spies (Hence the T.S.O.) I found this book series that I couldn’t get enough of; The Gallagher Girls. The first book is I’d Tell You I Love You, But Then I’d Have to Kill You. These books are written by the same author! This other series is about a private school that prepares girls to become secret agents.

When I found Heist Society, I figured it would be fun, especially since it’s from a thief’s point of view rather than the stereotypical good guy.

My favorite part of this book was the heist. The genius and planning that has to go into coming up with that alone is crazy. To see it successfully written out is something I always love to see as a fellow writer.

The writing:

At first, I found the pace of this book a little slow going. It takes a minute to get caught up in the story and understand the characters’ backgrounds. That being said, once you get into the nitty-gritty of planning a heist and watching it play out, I couldn’t put the book down.

The characters:

The characters in this story have layers and layers to be uncovered. Hale was probably my favorite. He’s part of the family, but not part of the family, and there’s a lot to unpack with how he fits into the Bishop family. The Bishop family alone is full of characters that come in and out, each with their own set of skills.

Our main character, Katarina, has a lot to work through, and I do like to see her character arch come full circle. If anything, I think it would have been nice to see more of her before she left the family business and understand why she really left in the first place. She has her own family issues and tragedies, but there could have been more flushed out in her background.

In the end, this book was a very enjoyable read. Anyone around 12 and up would have fun with it, especially those readers who love a good heist or crime to solve. See if you can predict how they are going to do it before they do!

Until next time,

Happy reading!

R.E. Klinzing