7/10, this was a good novel, but I'm not sure if this is a middle grade or young adult novel, but I enjoyed this one nonetheless. The characters were very interesting, Nash's mother is a police officer, his father is a criminal who didn't have any purpose in life after he was beaten in a boxing match, and thus decided to live a life of crime, and Nash is just caught in the middle of all of this. The story was action packed most of the time, but the pacing can slow down for the main character to interact with other characters, which didn't drag the story down at all. The ending was very emotional, Nash couldn't really forgive himself for trying to help his father rob the school to pay some other criminals until the end, and Nash's mother made a difficult decision to let him rob the school, then let him get arrested, to not get Nash and his father killed. I also liked seeing Nash being a runner, he even won a running race in the end, which was heartwarming. If you like an action packed novel, this is the book for you. ( )

Not Bancks finest work for a number of reasons - but generally because of a big red flag raised by the plot for me. The story is as follows:_
Nash splits his time between his Mum who is a cop and his Dad who isn't. The book opens with Nash's Dad robbing a petrol station and getting away with it and Nash soon discovers that his father owes some money to some nasty types who give his Dad three days to come up with a quarter of a million dollars. Nash becomes entangled in his Dad's scheme to rob the school of its takings from their big fun fair day by spying on what is the combination to the school safe. But at the last minute, his conscience gets the better of him, and he comes clean to his Mum about what is going to happen. His Mum tells him its "all sorted" but then Nash sees her driving his Dad's getaway car!
This is where Bancks lost me! The blurring of right and wrong and the struggle Nash feels is turned on its head with this and he leaves his main character floundering with no moral compass except a token effort from the school Principal at the end. I get that he is trying to say that mothers will do anything to protect their children but I think the Mum character would have turned herself in after the robbery - it didn't fit with how she was portrayed at the start of the book. I was left feeling a bit flat and wondering if young adults would take the message that the ends justifies the means when reading this. Two and a half stars only. ( )