Artemis Fowl

Artemis Fowl is a young adult fantasy novel by the Irish author Eoin Colfer and the first book of a series. Its author pitched it as a heist story with fairies in it, and the novel follows two sides at once: a twelve-year-old human criminal genius and the underground police force he has decided to rob.

Artemis Fowl II has money, education and no parents at home, and he means to restore the family name by capturing a fairy and holding her for ransom. The fairy he takes is Holly Short, a reconnaissance officer of the Lower Elements Police, and her colleagues answer with a siege, a troll, a technical team and a commander who is willing to use equipment that destroys the surface house above the tunnel.

Colfer writes the book from both sides, so the fairies are the professionals and the boy is the antagonist who has read up on their rules. The series continued with further volumes, and its version of fairy technology and law gave the later books their setting.