Title: In the Bag
Author: Jim Carrington
Format: Paperback
Pages: 366
Genre: Young Adult
Published: 7th February 2011 (Bloomsbury)
As Joe and Ash are heading home after a night hanging out with their friends at the rec, they stumble across a crashed car in the woods and a bag stuffed with £20,000. It's the early hours of the morning and they've both been drinking, so rather than head to the police station straight away, they decide to take the bag home and deal with it the next day. however, by morning their resolve to do the right thing has begun to waver. Surely no one would notice if they kept just a few notes for themselves? Would it really be so bad if they kept the whole lot? But there is more in the bag than just money, and sooner or later the owner is going to track them down ...
Joe and Ash are best friends and have been for years. On their way home one night they come across a bag full of money in the woods. Slightly drunk and underage, the boys decide it's probably best not to go to the Police Station right then and instead take the bag home, planning to hand it in the next day. They don't though, because, well who's going to know they have it?
The excitement of this book is largely based around the fact that while the reader knows something is going to go wrong, that Joe and Ash aren't going to get away with just keeping the money, you don't know the turns to story is going to take.To start with I was hoping that it wasn't going to be just a preachy "do the right thing" story, with them getting in trouble with their parents or something. Fortunately it wasn't . The boys end up dealing with real consequences .
I liked how the characters handled the situations they found themselves in and that they were two clear personalities. Ash being the risk taker, the one who did first and thought later while Joe was the more sensible of the two. The boys are close at the start of the book but as time goes on, things start to come between them, like Ash not telling Joe certain things about what else was in the bag. It's interesting to see how their relationship changes throughout the story.
The characters are very believable for sixteen-year-olds. They swear, drink, smoke and use drugs on occasion but at the same time they're essentially good kids. They haven't stolen the money and soon start to realised they'd made a mistake by not handing it to the police but by then it's too late.
In the Bag is an interesting and realistic read with some well written characters. I'll definitely be looking out for more books by this author.
