The Heist Has a Major Body Count

Published:  March 28th, 2012
The Pineville Heist
By: Lee Chambers
Misfp
ISBN-13:  9780986494314

Seventeen year old Aaron stumbles into the aftermath of a five million dollar bank heist gone wrong. Hiding under a canoe, Aaron partially catches the murder of one of the robbers. In the chaos he sneaks away with the money and heads straight for the closest place of safety, his high school. Terrified, Aaron tells his shocking tale to Amanda Becker, his drama teacher, but it doesn't take long for one of the psychotic robbers to show up. In the locked down school the pair are relentlessly pursued in a quest to get the money back and wipe out the evidence.

 

Review

 

     Aaron is the son of the wealthiest man in Pineville - who everyone in town despises, due to their own less than admirable financial circumstances.  While skipping class one day with a few friends, Aaron stumbles onto a shootout between the robbers who heisted five million from the town's bank.  Hidden under a canoe, Aaron watches while one of the robbers murders the two others and than goes after his friends, who aren't as well hidden.  Trying to get help and return the money, Aaron tells his drama teacher, Amanda Becker (who he has a major crush on), what has happened.  But when they go back to the robbers' hideout, the money is gone and so are the bodies.  But it isn't too long before everyone is locked down inside the school, trying to escape the murderous bank robber and stay alive until the cops come.  But not everything is as easy as it seems and when the dust settles some surprising implications will be made.  Will Aaron survive to see the money returned and the killer caught, or will he be caught in the crossfire?  I got through this book mainly because I knew beforehand that it's being turned into a movie.  That made up for a lot of the plot holes, overusage of action/violence and predictability of the identity of the robbers.  I will say one thing in it's favor was the fast pace and constant action.  If it would have been slow, the book would have been completely intolerable.  My main problem was the lack of character development, but I suppose that it's easily adaptable into a film with the length it is currently.  Overall, I wasn't a satisfied reader but it definitely was not the worst book that I read so far this year.  That honor is being saved for another.

 

VERDICT:  2.5/5  Stars

 

*I received an Advanced Reading E-book Copy from the publisher, via NetGalley. No money or favors were exchanged for this review. This book was published March 28th, 2012.*