Losers

Point Crime: The Beat #6

by David Belbin

Life on the Maynard Estate is hard and Julie wants to escape. Gordon has won the lottery and lives in luxury - that is, until his house is burgled and his wife abducted. Called in to investigate, Paul and Clare uncover a network of crime based on greed and betrayal.

Genres: Crime

224 pages, Paperback

First published May 16, 1997

About the author

Belbin's work is known for breaking boundaries and dealing responsibly with difficult social issues that affect teenagers. He first attained success with a number of books for Scholastic's Point Crime series.

Reviews

[Marie-Antoinette · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very interesting book. I enjoyed reading it.

[Rebecca Gray · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great

[Sarah Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.25 stars

* A man who won the lottery gets burgled, his daughter is tied up and his wife is taken to get money from cash machines. It's assumed that it's the work of a 'motorway gang' who have done several of those type of robberies, but the police are suspicious. It turns out that the man faked the robbery to get the insurance money because he was broke.
* Julie is a 20 year old girl with a very young daughter. She lives with her mum and younger brother who keeps getting into trouble himself. Julie claims to have won £50K on a scratchcard, and everybody wants some of the money, not least the newsagent who sold the ticket. Only it wasn't really Julie's ticket, it was her younger brother's and he was too young to legally buy a scratchcard, so they don't get the money.
* Eddie Broom was friends with all the above people, and really was a member of the motorway gang. He gets away though because the only witness to the robberies couldn't identify him.
* Clare continues going out with Paul, and Ruth wonders if they will get engaged. It seems like they're now sleeping together, and Neil isn't happy about it.
* Ruth and Ben go off on holiday for 10 days to Ibiza. Ben thinks about how he loves Ruth, but he's still tempted by other women, even Julie above.