Money Run

Gr 8–10—Most readers will be hooked immediately as 15-year-old Ash Arthur, a professional thief, enters an office building to steal $200 million from Hammond Buckland, one of the world's wealthiest men. Ash is gifted and daring, and she has cool tools: handcuff keys, code-cracking magnets, and computer viruses to disable security cameras. The plot takes place in one location over a single night. People hide in refrigerators, leap out of open windows, and light their clothes on fire. A government-hired thug is trying to assassinate Buckland, who sets brilliant traps to throw his would-be murderer off course. Ash gets caught in the middle. The story unfolds from multiple perspectives as these characters pursue and dodge one another around the building. A lot more happens, too, and Heath manages his ever-increasing plot elements well. He's great at creating impossible dilemmas, which unfold in tantalizing, second-by-second detail. Somewhere in Part Three, though, the novel loses its juicy pace, probably because it becomes too much of a puzzle to solve. In the end, readers are left scratching their heads. Most of them won't have the energy to work it all out. Still, Money Run is a smart book. Ash Arthur loves danger, and teens will stick with her, especially if Heath gives them more of his best in sequels.—Denise Ryan, Middlesex Middle School, Darien, CT