“It was that last piece of his father’s advice that March McQuin found himself contemplating at three in the morning on a picturesque bridge over a dark canal in Amsterdam.”

From Jude Watson’s Loot: How to Steal a Fortune.

Almost-thirteen-year-old March McQuin has been training his whole life with his father (Alfred) to be a great thief.  On what should have been a standard heist, March’s father falls from a roof and dies, leaving March alone with an odd little moonstone, a few dying instructions, and years of training to be a thief.  When March goes through his father’s seemingly random, useless things, he finds a card listing a street performance and he decides to go investigate, but he meets no contacts and is captured by police.  Since he is an American, the orphaned March is going to be sent to a group home (Polestar House) in America.  While waiting for his chance to escape, another social worker arrives with one of the young street performers, Jules, and informs both kids that they are not only siblings, but twins.  When an old woman shows up to Alfred’s funeral, demanding her stolen moonstones be returned to her, March and Jules don’t know what to think, but as time goes on, March sees more and more clues that someone is after them and it’s not good.  While March doesn’t know much about his long-lost sister, he quickly begins to learn about his parents’ past and that the biggest score of his father’s career might be bigger than they ever could have imagined.  The twins makes unlikely friends with Darius and Izzy at the home, but March and Jules will really have to learn to trust each other if they want to pull off the heists left behind by their father and make it out alive.

The short chapters make for a very easy, but captivating story, very similar to James Patterson’s writing style.  The characters are easy to connect with and develop well in the mystery throughout the book.  Filled with smart situations and plans, readers will be easily captivated by Loot and find it hard to put down.