Loot

Watson, Jude. Loot. 2014. 272p. ISBN 9780545468022. Available as an eBook on Overdrive.

Alfie McQuinn is one of the most accomplished cat burglar. With his son, 13-years-old March, they have travelled the world, stealing riches and fencing them. Sometimes life is a feast, with vacations and plenty of money. At other times, life is a fast, with canned food and not enough sleep. But always, life is exciting.

So when Alfie falls from the rooftop of an Amsterdam building with March looking on in horror, life changes for the worst. With the cops on their way, and his life ebbing, Alfie has barely enough time to tell his son to find jewels. March barely manages to escape. With no plan, he returns to their hotel room and retrieves his father’s day pack. In it are strange items along with the more mundane. But one thing is clear. Alfie was trying to steal the seven moonstones, presently scattered around the world.

Then March makes an extraordinary discovery. He has a twin sister, named Jules. That’s who Alfie was talking about. An acrobat, Jules performs in an act with their aunt, Blue. But just as they meet, they are shipped to a foster home. There they meet Darius and Izzy, other teens also at the foster home. And they are threatened by not one but two people, one an eccentric old woman, a millionaire who offers them a fortune to retrieve the moonstones March and Jules’ father stole from her ten years ago, and the other an old cop, now the star of a reality detective show, who wants the money for himself.

Since both twins have grown apart, they don’t share the same goals. But they do share many of the same skills, and together with Darius and Izzy, they will attempt to get their hands on the stones. But with other professional thieves hunting the stones, the teens are in it for a wild ride of a crime spree that could cost them their very lives…

Short chapters and intense action make this a great book for adventure seekers, and even reluctant readers will appreciate the ease of reading and the pacing.