Product Description

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. He hardly knows his kids and his closest friend is a down and out newspaper seller and they’re not really close. In the early mornings he wanders the moors of Northern England with a pair of dogs he doesn’t like, 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. But would he survive to spend his ill gotten gains?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1122044 in Books
• Published on: 2006-02-23
• Released on: 2006-02-23
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 318 pages

Review
If you haven't read Ken Scott, you're missing one heck of a writer! -- Ken Douglas, author of Desperation Moon

Mind numbing suspense - Scotty really delivers! -- Jack Stewart, author of Hurricane

From the Publisher
This is British writer Ken Scott’s debut novel with Bootleg Press and we are happy to have him aboard. JACK OF HEARTS is a thriller we are proud of. A year in the writing, longer in the second draft, but the story was worth the wait, worth the effort.

Newcastle Banker Bob Heggie lives alone in a barely furnished flat. His wife has thrown him over for another man and taken the children he loves. His boss treats him like a dog, often humiliating him in front of the other employees.

Then he buys a motorcycle, meets a younger woman and is almost killed during a daring, daylight bank robbery. The motorcycle, a Harley Sportster, gives him confidence, the girl confuses him and the robbery changes him.

While walking the moors in the early morning, listening to Bob Dylan sing about the Jack of Hearts on his iPod, he devises a scheme, a grand plan, to get even with the bank and the boss he loathes.

Give this story a try, we think you’ll like it. Well, we hope you do. Mr. Scott is busy working on the sequel and we hope, if you try this one, that you’ll come back for that.

Best regards,

Bootleg Press

About the Author
Ken Scott is a financial consultant turned writer, who divides his time between England and Spain.

Customer Reviews

A Whale of a Tale, with Some Romance and Adventure Added in
If you're a reader of mysteries and thrillers and haven't read Ken Scott yet, perhaps you should. Scotty is a British writer who lives in Spain. He's penned a thriller about the banking business in England and how it beat down the hopes and aspirations of a junior bank manager, named Bob Hegge.

On top of having a job that's grinding him to dust, he's got a wife who treats him like dirt. Dust and dirt, not a good way to go. Bob decides to get even. He decides to rob the bank where he works. Of course wanting to rob the bank and actually doing it are two different things. Then once you leave the planning stage you have to actually get away with it. Because no matter how bad his life is, life in prison would be worse.

So Bob plans and you'll just love the way he schemes the bank out of its money. You'll also love the fact that he gets a new girl, one who appreciates him, though she might have thought twice, if she'd known about this bank robbing business.

You won't go wrong with this book. It's cleverly written, has just the right amount of romance, got some good action scenes as well and it's even got a couple old dogs to die for. Add to the fact that the characters live with you long after you close the last page, plus you'll learn a fair amount about the banking business, well put all that together and you have a whale of a tale you won't be able to put down.

I Just Loved this Book, Both Times
I should have reviewed Mr. Scott's exciting thriller several months ago. I read it in one night, was very impressed, but life got in the way and I set the book aside, meaning to get to it in a day or two. Well the days turned into weeks, into months and last night I needed something to read and there the book was, still on my nightstand, under Harlan Coben's latest. Well, I pulled the book out, opened to page one and once again was immediately drawn into Bob Hegge's story.

Mr. Hegge 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. Just about his only friends are a pair of aging dogs who appear to love him, though the feeling isn't mutual.

Poor Bob Hegge 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, both times. Bob Hegge 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.

One Gem of a Book
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 as well as a damn good read.

Meet Banker Bob Hegge. 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. Plus his wife is having an affair and he doesn't seem to be getting on too well with his kids. 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. However, he knows he can't go blasting in with a gun. Besides, he doesn't own a gun. So he starts to plan. And he comes up with something so simple, so ingenious, a way to separate a whole bunch of money from 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.