A gang of robbers knock over a Belfast bank, and soon have the cops and the IRA out hunting them, in Richard O'Rawe's Northern Heist.
This is O'Rawe's first foray into fiction after writing several nonfiction accounts based around his own experiences in the IRA. Northern Heist is a bit of both, fictionalized but based on a true-life large-scale bank robbery in Belfast in the early 2000s.
Of course, there is almost immediately double-crossings, close calls, and other shenanigans, otherwise it would be a short story and not a novel.
O'Rawe writes a very hard-boiled heist novel, and hits all the right beats on par with a Donald Westlake outing.
I thought the biggest shortcoming is O'Rawe invites the reader to root for the main characters, which I struggled with when they kidnapped two families and terrorized them, forcing two bank employees to carry out the biggest aspect of the heist (called a "tiger kidnapping").
A good heist novel overall, for fans of this type of fiction.
I checked this out from the New Castle-Henry County Public Library in New Castle, Indiana.
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