Heist Society by Ally Carter

“I don't want tea, I want justice!” 

Heist Society and its sequel Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter is a teen spy fiction. Katarina Bishop comes from a family of thieves.Kat tries to escape this life and scams herself into a boarding school where she plans to study and live a normal, honest life. This proves harder than she expected it to be. When her father is blamed for the thievery of major artworks she must be called back in action to clear his name and return the portraits to its original owners. If I say too much more it will spoil the rest of the book but lets just say that by the second book she is back in business but this time alone. She is only stealing what is already stolen, so it isn't bad is it? When she goes back to her family she must face trust issues and when she runs into trouble she starts doubting her skills.

Heist Society was a very enjoyable series. It as very similar in story to her other series, Gallagher Girls, so if you have read that it is basically the same. It just swaps the word 'spy' for ' thief'. However it was still interesting enough even though I read Gallagher girls beforehand. The first book in the series is a bit difficult to understand fully the introduction, it got quite confusing. I found the second book easier to understand it was more captivating. I had forgotten the first book and yet I still managed to understand everything.

Even though it is predictable that everything will be alright in the end (as it is will all girlish teen books, and I hope it stays that way!) there were quite a few twists to the plot, especially on the second book. However, at one point- I don't know if it was a good thing or not- I started getting anxious that it wouldn't have an ending. There were new twist to the plot at the very ending and it seemed it wouldn't have enough pages left to resolve it.

Underlying this light hearted series there is a significant ethical question posed. What Kat does is stealing and yet what she does is no more than what a police officer does, and apparently she does a better job of it. However she could go to jail for it for she is breaking laws but what she does helps the rightful owners. Where do we draw the lines in 'bending'the rules? She may be called a thief but maybe she should be called a secret agent but just because she is not with a proper organisation she is a thief. What she does might be even better than it would be if she were working for the government as she does it for free, while if she was with an organisation she would be paid from people's taxes. So really what is good and bad? Does criminal aw always apply only to the bad or does it end up stopping some good? 

Now I'm not telling anyone to start stealing even if they thought they were doing the right thing. These are all just interesting, debatable questions that apply to other aspects of life. If anyone wants to join this discussion just leave a comment and don't forget to read the books!