Jack Heath, (born 23 August 1986 in Sydney, Australia), is a writer of young adult fiction. He has resided in Canberra since age 9. Heath is best known for the Six of Hearts series, for being one of Australia's youngest bestselling authors, and for the high action content in his novels (his work is often compared to that of Matthew Reilly, to the CHERUB written by Robert Muchamore and to the Alex Rider series by Anthony Horowitz.)
Jack Heath's second book, Remote Control was shortlisted for the 2007 Aurealis Award for Best Science-Fiction Novel, and he is the 2009 ACT Young Australian of the Year.
Most of Jack Heath's works so far have contained one or more of the following elements: atonement/redemption, coming of age, commercialism, conspiracy, corruption, genetic experimentation, greed, heroism, and nature vs. nurture. However, Heath has been quoted as saying that he writes only "to entertain . . . to keep people entertained from the first page to the last. I'm not trying to force issues onto anyone."
The narrative is always third-person and past tense, except in dream sequences and the final chapter of Third Transmission (which led some critics to speculate that the end might be a dream.) Heath frequently uses onomatopoeia and lots of detail in his action scenes to create a "slow-motion" effect. Another consistent element is the lack of a stated geographical setting. The Six of Hearts series is set in an overpopulated, capitalist metropolis known only as "the City", which covers an entire continent. (The continent is described as being 7.5 million square kilometres in area, which is only slightly less than Australia, so this seems the most likely location.) Money Run is set in a Western nation where the currency is dollars, but where the police Miranda warning resembles that used by British law enforcement , which might indicate that the book is set in Australia or New Zealand.
Heath is also known for his in-jokes - for instance, the names of many of his characters are anagrams of famous actors, (e.g. "Serfie Thaldurken" is an anagram of Kiefer Sutherland) and some of the firearms in his novels are named after fictional weapons from films such as Aliens. Similarly, his website includes humorous hidden captions behind all images and links, and the site's 404 error message has been replaced with a short story entitled 404.