Money Run by Jack Heath (review)

Daring fifteen-year-old Ash Arthur and her brainiac sidekick Benjamin are the latest YA pair of dashing teen criminals in the first volume of this Australian thriller series. The Source, which has been providing them with caper leads for some months, has directed them to the office of Hammond Buckland, a billionaire who wants to retire from his unfulfilling lifestyle. Buckland is presumed to have hidden something worth hundreds of millions on his premises, a prize that Ash is determined to find. However, as she's busy finding imaginative ways to break into heavily protected rooms in the office tower, hit man Michael Peavey is equally busy trying to off Buckland for the U.S. government, lest the billionaire give away his cash before he dies, leaving Uncle Sam with no way to claim the childless man's estate. The plot may be well-worn, but teen thriller aficionados will still relish the details of bugged-room break-ins, locked-room escapes, twists with competing assassins, a trashed Bugatti Veyron, and some darn creative methods for bumping off whomever gets in the way. This is all about the action—Heath doesn't waste much time in character development—and the set-up for further adventures is perfunctory but effective. Buckland ultimately lures Ash and Benjamin to the side of the angels, but their future of thievery for a good cause should provide readers with plenty of silver screen-worthy entertainment.