Two adventurous reads, so clever they are practically criminal

Heist Society and Uncommon Criminals by Ally Carter

15 year old Kat Bishop is a thief. In fact, she is a very talented thief, even among her family of thieves. She can run the short con or the long con. She can pick a pocket, sneak into a house at night, or steal something right from under the nose of her mark. Kat’s most recent con has been to establish herself as a student at a prestigious boarding school, with the goal of actually settling down and trying to be a normal teenage girl. Unfortunately, her new game plan is interrupted when her father needs her help to clear his name, (not that he would ever admit it), and she is drawn back into a plot to work with a crew of other teenagers to steal four paintings from a museum that even the best thieves in the world haven’t been able to rob before….

And the story continues in Uncommon Criminals, a sequel full of surprises as Kat rides high from her previous successes. She is approached to steal the infamous “Cleopatra Emerald” and return it to its rightful owners. The Emerald is priceless of course, and under impossibly high security, and also rumor has that it is cursed. A few small but shocking setbacks leave Kat and her friends traveling the world in pursuit of the emerald, worried that they are being affected by the curse, and using every “inside man” they can think of to help them succeed.