The Pineville Heist

Lee Chambers

Average Rating 9/10 (1 Review)

Will Aaron Stevens survive the night of the Pineville Heist?

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.

The Pineville Heist, based on the award-winning screenplay by Lee Chambers and Todd Gordon, "is a young adult thriller with a slick plot, believable characters, and a breakneck pace that will no doubt appeal to adults as much as teens," noted Walleye Magazine's Amy Jones. "An enthusiatic five stars!"

"The Pineville Heist is the very definition of thrill, energized with edge-of-your-seat action and suspense!" claims US Review of Books reviewer Mihir Shah.

Follow movie and book news at www.pinevilleheist.com.

Review by Paul Lappen (310312) Rating (9/10)

Review by Paul Lappen
Rating 9/10
This novel is about your average teenager caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. He might just pay with his life.

Pineville is a small town in Ontario that has seen better days. Its last remaining bit of industry, a mill, has been bought by Derek Stevens, a corporate-raider type. The expectation is that he will close the mill, turning Pineville into a ghost town. Anticipating your town's demise can make people do strange things. That makes Aaron, his son, not the most popular person at the local high school.

Cutting class one day, Aaron and a couple of friends head for the woods just beyond the high school, and come upon a bank robbery gone bad. Hiding under a canoe, Aaron sees a couple of the robbers shot point blank by an unknown person. Grabbing a knapsack full of money from the bank that was robbed, Aaron makes it back to the school. Steve, one of his friends, wasn't so lucky.

The school day is over, so the school is deserted. Aaron runs into Miss Becker, his drama teacher, only a few years older than Aaron. She becomes convinced that he is telling the truth when "Mr. Big," the person who did the shooting, enters the school. He makes it clear that he wants the money, and that he does not plan to leave witnesses. Mr. Big has smashed the school's electrical circuit breakers, plunging the school into darkness. Earlier, the principal made the school a "no cell phone" area, so there is no way to call for help. They are also locked in for the evening.

The three fight several pitched battles all over the school. Every time Aaron and Miss Becker think that Mr. Big is no longer a threat, he wakes up, meaner and more upset than ever. Do Aaron and Miss Becker survive the night? Is Mr. Big taken care of, once and for all?

I read the entire second half of this book in one sitting, it's that good. The book is somewhere in the process of being made into a movie. If it is anywhere near as thrilling as this novel, it is recommended for teens and adults.
Paul Lappen (31st March 2012)