Synopsis
Bob Heggie is a banker at the end of a dead end career. He hates his job, his boss, his life. His wife has left him. In the early mornings he wanders the moors of Northern England with his two dogs feeling sorry for himself, listening to Bob Dylan sing about a great bank robbery on his iPod. The Jack of Hearts in that song is the kind of man Bob imagines himself to be, but he knows he'll always be just plain old boring Bob Heggie
Then one morning he is nearly killed in an armed robbery and he starts to think. If he were to steal the bank's money, he'd come up with a better way. He begins to plan his scam. Not a robbery, a scam. Will it work; has he got the nerve to carry it off? And even if he achieves the near impossible, could he remain ‘plain old boring Bob Heggie’ just long enough to avoid detection and escape to the sun with his ill gotten gains.
Critical acclaim for
‘A MILLION WOULD BE NICE’
Jack Stewart, author of Hurricane
Mind numbing suspense - Scotty really delivers!
Ken Douglas, author of Desperation Moon
If you haven't read Ken Scott, you're missing one heck of a writer
Stephanie Sane, Top 1,000 US Amazon Reviewer
Twice during the night, I had to stop, close my eyes and rest a bit, telling myself that I'd pick up tomorrow where I'd left off. But I couldn’t get the story out of my head. I just plain wanted to see what happened to sad old Bob Heggie next. I had to know, so I toughed it out, eye strain and all.
Bob Heggie is the under manager at Martin's bank in Newcastle, England. He is under appreciated, under paid and his wife has left him for greener pastures and taken his children. He lives in a flat not far from the home where he used to live and he jogs over there every morning to walk the dogs he doesn't like, hoping to see his kids. He wanders the moors with the dogs, dreaming of better things. He is a real Walter Mitty character and he knows it.
Then he is shot during a bank robbery and it starts him on a path he'd never have taken otherwise. He meets a girl, gets over his wife and plans a way to rob the bank he works for without getting caught.
I really liked this book and one of the reasons, besides the fact that it's a very good and well told story, is because I'm such a huge Bob Dylan fan (I've reviewed a whole ton of his stuff). I really liked the fact that Bob Heggie admired the Jack of Hearts in Bob Dylan's song of the same name, that when he started to come out of his shell he fancied himself as that bank robber Mr. D. sings about. And I really liked the way Bob (Heggie, not Dylan) launders his money and foils those who would see him behind bars, but I'll have to leave that for you to find out about when you read the book. After all, it wouldn't be fair if I told the whole story here, now would it?
iona Wilson SJP Dublin Ireland
Once I got stuck into "Jack of Hearts" I was intrigued by the two main characters and the plot and could not put the book down until I had finished it - in one day! A really well written novel with a highly believable plot which set the heart racing at times !! I would highly recommend this book and am already looking forward to the sequel ‘A Million would be nice’, which is on its way from Amazon.
Faith Donavan, New Orleans
I was up all night reading this book and it brought me back to when I worked at a bank. I could just picture the setting and the characters so vividly. However fortunately I didn't have a boss like John Mackenzie. This man treats his underlings so badly that they hate coming to work and one man, who hates it more than any of the others is Bob Heggie.
Poor Bob has been going through a bad patch lately. His job, as you can imagine with a boss like Mackenzie, is getting him down. His wife has left him for another man and she controls his access to his children. He's fed up with a system that just keeps dumping on him. So he decides to get even. Naturally there is a girl in the story, but Bob is slow to realize there just might be someone else for him, probably because he's too busy trying to scam the bank he's working for out of heaps of cash.
You'll just love this stay up all night thriller that is jammed full of suspense right from the beginning. There is a little bit of Bob Heggie in anybody who wasn't born with a silver spoon in in his or her mouth. Anybody can identify with him. He is definitely a good kind of bad guy who you'll find yourself rooting for. This is a book you are thoroughly going to enjoy.
Tiffany Anne. Top 1,000 Amazon Reviewer USA
Mr. Heggie is one of life's losers. The game has passed him by and he never even saw it go. Then one day he is almost killed in a bank robbery and he begins to question what he's been about, what he is about. He hates his job, his boss, his life. He doesn't love his wife anymore and is almost a stranger to his kids. He doesn't even seem all that upset when he finds out his wife is having an affair and wants to leave him.
Poor Bob Heggie is in a rut and it's getting deeper by the day. He doesn't like it. He has a better life he goes to, unfortunately it's in his head when he's walking those dogs on the Northern English moor. Then one day he decides that it's time to stop living in dreams. It's time to take action, to do something with himself. It's time, he decides, to rob the bank.
How he does it is what makes this story so ingenious, so suspenseful. I enjoyed every second I spend with this book. Bob Heggie is the kind of character you hate, then love to hate, then wind up loving. Stuff happens to Bob and it's how he handles that stuff that makes this such a good story. I just loved it.
Jack Priest Author, Reno Nevada
I just can't say enough good about this book. Captivating, engrossing, thrilling, three words that apply, but then there's pulse-racing, tense and satisfying too. This book is all of those and a damn good read.
Meet Banker Bob Heggie. A man long overdue for a promotion he's never going to get. Maybe once upon a time he was an eager young man, looking to a bright future in the British banking biz, but during the twenty years he'd been on the job, he'd been beating back by an unrelenting system and an overbearing boss. His wife is quitting the family home. He's just a down and out guy, who is down and out on his luck. Lesser men have taking sleeping pills or jumped from the Newcastle Bridge for less, but not Bob.
He decides to get even. He decides to rob the bank.
Sure the finger of guilt will be pointed straight at him, but proof, if he pulls it off, if he does it right, proof will be impossible to find.
However, there will be those looking for it and you should look for this book. You won't be able to put it down. Mr. Scott's debut thriller is stuffed full of suspense, with characters so accurately drawn you can't help but being pulled into their story. This is one gem of a good book.
Buy Jack of Hearts Now....
