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lesbrary's review
4.0
El is a con artist. She began this vocation as a 12 year old orphan, being raised by her reluctant aunt. El was smart, bored, and angry when a library book of cons led her to being taken on as an apprentice by Rose. Now, she's established her own reputation as a woman who can get things done, and she's able to live out her life in a secluded house in the countryside, just taking the jobs that interest her. When Rose asks her for a favour, she has no idea that this chain of events will lead her to joining a team of women bent on revenge.
The Debt is a crime thriller set in England in the late 1990s: part heist story, part revenge plot. At first, I wasn't quite sure what was happening. We're thrown into El's world, where nothing can be taken at face value. It's told mostly from her perspective, but we also get excepts from newspapers and magazine articles, and some flashbacks--including the first chapter. Because this is a story about con artists, you're never sure what's real, and everyone has a secret. Reading the first chapter, I thought it would be a mystery solved by con artists. Soon, it felt more like a heist story, with a team of very different women joining together to take down a common foe. As I kept reading, I realized that this was darker than that would suggest: it's fundamentally a revenge story against someone who seems to have no bounds to his cruelty. While a heist story is usually about getting away with a prize, none of these women will be able to regain the people that were taken from them. They can only hope to stop it from happening again, and enact some blunt force justice.
Even before I had acclimatized to the tone and focus of the story, I immediately liked El. She is self-assured and skilled at what she does. She seems to always have things under control, which makes it all the more interesting when she is forced to deviate from her plans. I also found it interesting that she isn't motivated by money: even when she was a child, she had spending money, and we meet her when she's already well-established. She does cons because she's good at them, and because she wants to. Unfortunately, this isn't a profession that easily meshes with having a relationship. We learn that she's had a string of short-term girlfriends, but the relationships all ended when they began asking questions about her work. There isn't any romantic subplot here, but we do see multiple queer characters, and get some insight to what that meant at different time periods in the UK.
The whole appeal to me of a heist story is the ragtag crew of characters. There's something very satisfying about a group of talented, motivated women teaming up to bring down a rich, misogynistic, violent man. Although we don't spend a lot of time with each character--the plot takes up most of the page time--we do get enough to have a sense of them all as distinct personalities, and I wanted to spend more time with them. Of course, that would have slowed down the pacing some, so I'm satisfied with what we got, but Edwards managed to make each of their personalities intriguing enough that I wanted to get to know them more. They all have their own reasons for getting involved in this, and as their plan comes together, we begin to see how their stories intersect.
One character I did not want to see more of was Marchant. He is the villain of the piece, and almost over-the-top in his cruelty.
Marchant, despite his corporate successes, had one, deep-seated ambition that remained thus far unfulfilled: he wanted to get into office. Not buy his way to a peerage or sit on the non-exec board of a policy institute, but actually get elected--to have people want to vote for him. It wasn’t even really about power, Rose had said--he had more than enough of that already. It was about ego. He had a narcissist’s appetite for veneration.
Marchant is a powerful figure, a businessman whose success comes down to being given loans by family early on. He has "connections" that make him untouchable, despite the long list of despicable acts in this past. This power isn't enough, however: he's egotistical enough to run for office... (This is England, by the way.) It's not hard to get behind the women's plan to take him down. Because each of these characters has a connection to him and has personal reasons for wanting him to fall, it lends the revenge plot a lot of weight--especially considering that he has no qualms at having any potential threats "taken care of."
The dark tone of this story comes with some content warnings you should be aware of. There is violence, murder, and gore, including familicide as well as child abuse. There's also mention of hatred of sex workers, but this is pushed back on by the text. There was also offhand mention of a schizophrenic person murdering someone (equating being schizophrenic with violence), and fatphobia in the narration of the story, which felt like rare missteps in this novel. While I'm discussing flaws, I did have one questions about the ending:
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by The Debt. I don't read a lot of crime novels, so I wasn't sure how the reading experience would go. I ended up being invested in the characters and discovering their backstories, and I couldn't help but root for Marchant being taken down. This is also possibly the most well-edited self-published book I've ever read--it wasn't a surprise, then, to find out that Natalie Edwards is (along with being a "cultural researcher with a long-standing interest in cons and con artists") a former copywriter.
If any part of "all-women heist team, con artists, and a revenge story against a wealthy misogynist" interests you, definitely pick up The Debt by Natalie Edwards!
[This review also ran on the Lesbrary]
The Debt is a crime thriller set in England in the late 1990s: part heist story, part revenge plot. At first, I wasn't quite sure what was happening. We're thrown into El's world, where nothing can be taken at face value. It's told mostly from her perspective, but we also get excepts from newspapers and magazine articles, and some flashbacks--including the first chapter. Because this is a story about con artists, you're never sure what's real, and everyone has a secret. Reading the first chapter, I thought it would be a mystery solved by con artists. Soon, it felt more like a heist story, with a team of very different women joining together to take down a common foe. As I kept reading, I realized that this was darker than that would suggest: it's fundamentally a revenge story against someone who seems to have no bounds to his cruelty. While a heist story is usually about getting away with a prize, none of these women will be able to regain the people that were taken from them. They can only hope to stop it from happening again, and enact some blunt force justice.
Even before I had acclimatized to the tone and focus of the story, I immediately liked El. She is self-assured and skilled at what she does. She seems to always have things under control, which makes it all the more interesting when she is forced to deviate from her plans. I also found it interesting that she isn't motivated by money: even when she was a child, she had spending money, and we meet her when she's already well-established. She does cons because she's good at them, and because she wants to. Unfortunately, this isn't a profession that easily meshes with having a relationship. We learn that she's had a string of short-term girlfriends, but the relationships all ended when they began asking questions about her work. There isn't any romantic subplot here, but we do see multiple queer characters, and get some insight to what that meant at different time periods in the UK.
The whole appeal to me of a heist story is the ragtag crew of characters. There's something very satisfying about a group of talented, motivated women teaming up to bring down a rich, misogynistic, violent man. Although we don't spend a lot of time with each character--the plot takes up most of the page time--we do get enough to have a sense of them all as distinct personalities, and I wanted to spend more time with them. Of course, that would have slowed down the pacing some, so I'm satisfied with what we got, but Edwards managed to make each of their personalities intriguing enough that I wanted to get to know them more. They all have their own reasons for getting involved in this, and as their plan comes together, we begin to see how their stories intersect.
One character I did not want to see more of was Marchant. He is the villain of the piece, and almost over-the-top in his cruelty.
Marchant, despite his corporate successes, had one, deep-seated ambition that remained thus far unfulfilled: he wanted to get into office. Not buy his way to a peerage or sit on the non-exec board of a policy institute, but actually get elected--to have people want to vote for him. It wasn’t even really about power, Rose had said--he had more than enough of that already. It was about ego. He had a narcissist’s appetite for veneration.
Marchant is a powerful figure, a businessman whose success comes down to being given loans by family early on. He has "connections" that make him untouchable, despite the long list of despicable acts in this past. This power isn't enough, however: he's egotistical enough to run for office... (This is England, by the way.) It's not hard to get behind the women's plan to take him down. Because each of these characters has a connection to him and has personal reasons for wanting him to fall, it lends the revenge plot a lot of weight--especially considering that he has no qualms at having any potential threats "taken care of."
The dark tone of this story comes with some content warnings you should be aware of. There is violence, murder, and gore, including familicide as well as child abuse. There's also mention of hatred of sex workers, but this is pushed back on by the text. There was also offhand mention of a schizophrenic person murdering someone (equating being schizophrenic with violence), and fatphobia in the narration of the story, which felt like rare missteps in this novel. While I'm discussing flaws, I did have one questions about the ending:
Spoiler
Why weren't the women all tied up when El walked in? Or dead? Didn't Marchant only need Rose alive? It also seemed too risky that the video would be sent to the news station before he showed up.Overall, I was pleasantly surprised by The Debt. I don't read a lot of crime novels, so I wasn't sure how the reading experience would go. I ended up being invested in the characters and discovering their backstories, and I couldn't help but root for Marchant being taken down.
Spoiler
I was also happy to see that it ends up being a heist story of kinds after all!If any part of "all-women heist team, con artists, and a revenge story against a wealthy misogynist" interests you, definitely pick up The Debt by Natalie Edwards!
[This review also ran on the Lesbrary]
keykbytheocean's review
4.0
Love how the twists unfolded here, the pacing was just rightfully structured for the build up and resolution of the heist. Situations and backstories and exchanges of dialogue were believable to build this team of women as grifters who've been in rough circumstances.
The beats in the writing (how it maneuvered from timelines) was for me the highlight of the novel, it's intriguing and unreliable enough to keep the page turning.
But if one is expecting to read it for the sapphics, all I can say is the heist is what mainly drives the plot forward. Which for me is not a bad thing with how the writing was composed. A really good crime/heist book and could imagine it also as a well done series. Oh I need someone to adapt this on screen. Looking forward in reading the rest of the trilogy!
The beats in the writing (how it maneuvered from timelines) was for me the highlight of the novel, it's intriguing and unreliable enough to keep the page turning.
But if one is expecting to read it for the sapphics, all I can say is the heist is what mainly drives the plot forward. Which for me is not a bad thing with how the writing was composed. A really good crime/heist book and could imagine it also as a well done series. Oh I need someone to adapt this on screen. Looking forward in reading the rest of the trilogy!
motaki's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
5.0
You know that one book you bought ages ago but decided to postpone reading because you're 100% certain it will be so good it will fry your brain and render you speechless?
The Debt is exactly that, I can't spoil the plot because I won't ruin the pleasure of unveiling every mistery it has to offer, suffice to say the cast is wonderful, the pace won't leave you bored and the prose is simply perfect.
If intelligent women plotting revenge on a super evil villain via a really complex, brainy and exciting heist is your thing, pick up this amazing trilogy.
The Debt is exactly that, I can't spoil the plot because I won't ruin the pleasure of unveiling every mistery it has to offer, suffice to say the cast is wonderful, the pace won't leave you bored and the prose is simply perfect.
If intelligent women plotting revenge on a super evil villain via a really complex, brainy and exciting heist is your thing, pick up this amazing trilogy.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Domestic abuse, Child death, and Alcoholism
Moderate: Murder and Fire/Fire injury
netgyrl's review
3.0
3 Stars - Kindle Unlimited
I wanted to like this one better then I did. It is a genre right up my alley - lady grifters, smart bad ass chicks running a con on a dirt bag. There are a lot of players and a lot of things happening currently and in flash backs. I took extensive notes in order to keep the story straight as things were revealed. It helped me stay up with the significant revelations and what not. My main issue is with the way the story is resolved. I found it very disappointing. It was not satisfying. I am not sure I will read the next one.
I wanted to like this one better then I did. It is a genre right up my alley - lady grifters, smart bad ass chicks running a con on a dirt bag. There are a lot of players and a lot of things happening currently and in flash backs. I took extensive notes in order to keep the story straight as things were revealed. It helped me stay up with the significant revelations and what not. My main issue is with the way the story is resolved. I found it very disappointing. It was not satisfying. I am not sure I will read the next one.
Spoiler
Trust me, you are gonna HATE bad guy by the end and I wanted to watch him squirm and be publicly humiliated and go to jail for the rest of his life. That does not happen. He gets what's coming to him but not the the manner that the whole set up of the book would suggest. What is the point of an elaborate con job plot if at the very end the big reveal is that it was never going to work because of a reason I am not going to give away even in a spoiler. Anyway, the ending annoyed me.judeinthestars's review against another edition
dark
tense
fast-paced
5.0
At first, The Debt is reminiscent of heist movies, more specifically Ocean’s 8 and its cast of kickass women, but as the story develops, the light and fun feeling evaporates into a much darker story.
A lot of what El knows as a con artist, she learned from Ruby, who took her under her wing as a teenager. So when Ruby asks El for a favour, saying no isn’t an option. The favour turns into a much bigger, much more personal, and much more perilous job.
Told mostly from El’s point of view, with a few press clippings and some scenes recounted by other characters, The Debt begins in a seemingly straightforward manner but, very quickly, twists multiply. While I found all the characters fascinating and wish I could write about them all without spoiling, the real star of the book is the plot. It’s intricate and unreliable in the best way, nothing is what it seems and danger hovers all along. The pace is excellent and my heart kept beating faster and faster as the story developed. The bad guy is truly terrifying, and since I don’t often recommend books with violence, be aware that this is one. There’s nothing gratuitous about it however, it’s necessary for the story and brings insight into both the villain and the women going after him.
I’m going to need a lighter read after this but the next books in the series are going on my TBR right away.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Gun violence, Violence, Child death, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Domestic abuse, Blood, Alcoholism, and Abortion
brennanlafaro's review
dark
tense
fast-paced
4.0
When I hear as many good things about an author as I’ve heard about Natalie Edwards/TC Parker lately, good luck keeping their work out of my bookmail. Word of mouth regarding Edwards as a terrific author and human being made this an easy choice for Ladies of Horror Fiction’s “Ladies First 21” campaign to get people to make their first read of the new year a book by a woman.
My typical read these days is around 200 pages or less, and even though The Debt comes in at double that, it moves fast and like any good thriller, doesn’t feel anywhere close to its length. Edwards has created an outstanding and nuanced lead in El Gardener, only enhancing how intriguing the reader will find her by surrounding her with a supporting cast, each presented with enough depth to lead their own story. In the early pages I worried about having the big main cast, mixing up some of the women, but Edwards gives each one their own distinguishing strengths, traits, fears, and even sprinkles in backstory sparingly to assist the reader in not only keeping them straight, but become individually invested.
The story has an Ocean’s Eleven flavor to it, and even though Ocean’s Eight might be more apt due to the all-female cast, the 2001 version of the movie had a cleverness to it that the others never seemed to match. The interplay between what the reader knows and what each character knows as the threads unravel make for a compelling, and at times surprising story. Edwards included a truly despicable, yet believable villain who we love to root against, only exacerbated through his direct involvement in the story.
There are two more books in this series, and after being drawn into The Debt, I’ll be making them a priority. This book is fast and fun with deep, compelling characters and leans into all the best aspects of a heist movie.
el_stevie's review
5.0
A clever plot, flawless interweaving of different character perspectives, fluid writing. This was a brilliant page-turner and was, for me, a literary version of BBC's The Hustle which I used to enjoy watching. A real plus for this book, are the main characters, women who, whilst they have suffered, are strong enough to gain their own revenge for those wrongs. They are women we can all relate to and despite some slightly shady aspects to their characters, they draw you in and you really get to like them. As good as any crime fiction from the big publishing houses, Natalie Edwards is certainly one to watch in this field. I'm about to start on the second in the trilogy, The Push and I will most definitely be getting the third when it's completed.
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