Heist is a word I’ve heard, read and pretty much understood, but I don’t think I’ve ever used it – until now.

It’s come to my attention because Amazon have labelled my new book as ‘heist crime‘. That didn’t sound quite right to me and naturally I wanted to check if it was accurate. Heist crime sounds so American and fast paced. My Little Mallow books are quite gentle and very English.

Not being at home, I had to use an online dictionary, which tells me that in UK English heist can be a noun meaning a robbery. There are definitely robberies in the the story .

In American English heist can also be a verb. The example they give is ‘he heisted a Pontiac’. I’ve concluded that although I’d much prefer ‘cosy crime’ or something with mystery in, heist crime isn’t actually wrong.