Review: The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

The Heist by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Publisher: Bantam
Publication Date: June 18th 2013
My rating: 3 stars 

FBI Special Agent Kate O’Hare is known for her fierce dedication and discipline on the job, chasing down the world’s most wanted criminals and putting them behind bars. Her boss thinks she is tenacious and ambitious; her friends think she is tough, stubborn, and maybe even a bit obsessed. And while Kate has made quite a name for herself for the past five years, the only name she’s cared about is Nicolas Fox—an international crook she wants in more ways than one. Audacious, handsome, and dangerously charming, Nicolas Fox is a natural con man, notorious for running elaborate scams on very high-profile people. At first he did it for the money. Now he does it for the thrill. He knows that the FBI has been hot on his trail—particularly Kate O’Hare, who has been watching his every move. For Nick, there’s no greater rush than being pursued by a beautiful woman . . . even one who aims to lock him up. But just when it seems that Nicolas Fox has been captured for good, he pulls off his greatest con of all: he convinces the FBI to offer him a job, working side by side with Special Agent Kate O’Hare. Problem is, teaming up to stop a corrupt investment banker who’s hiding on a private island in Indonesia is going to test O’Hare’s patience and Fox’s skill. Not to mention the skills of their ragtag team made up of flamboyant actors, wanted wheelmen, and Kate’s dad. High-speed chases, pirates, and Toblerone bars are all in a day’s work . . . if O’Hare and Fox don’t kill each other first.

Ever since I read Pros and Cons earlier this year, I wanted to get properly stuck in with the rest of this series. Firstly because I am a huge fan of stories which feature antagonistic characters and trust me you can’t get more antagonistic than FBI agent Kate O’Hare and con man Nicolas Fox. Kate’s been on Nick’s case for the last five years and despite being able to fraud his way through so much, there’s just something so charming about him that sort of doesn’t make you feel bad for allowing him to outwit you and escape once more. I loved reading about this cat and mouse game between the two of them in Pros and Cons, so was interested in seeing how things would go down in this book now that they would be working together, would Kate be able to fully trust Nick? And what about all that sexual tension between them could they finally put that behind them too?

When the idea of Nick working for the FBI was first proposed, like Kate I thought this was some sort of joke, yes Nick was a really intelligent man, but how could they know that he wouldn’t just leave them in the lurch? Kate had to put her trust in a man, she had been chasing for the last five years, trust him that he could come up with a team to bring this corrupt investment banker down. And let me just say Nick was able to take away any doubt I had regarding his real true intentions very early on. I loved the variety of characters with their specialised areas of knowledge that Nick was able to bring in the mix, they were such a quirky bunch, but together were able to put together a very clever plan of bringing down this investment blunder. It was a lot of fun watching this plan unfold especially as it did include a lot of characters going out of their comfort zone! Watching Kate become this seductress induced many laugh out loud moments.

Nick’s plan was very complex and elaborate, and at times I did think that it would fail, but Nick knew exactly what he was doing. Overall I thoroughly enjoyed The Heist, my only complaint is that I would have loved to see more boundaries of the sexual tension between Nick and Kate being crossed, these small bits that we got I loved, so here’s hoping that there will be a lot more in the next book!