Middle-grade or YA book with a very smart teenager

Question

I heard a description of a book in 2015 or 2016 in school. The target audience was probably 8-12 years old, but the teacher did say that it was more difficult than the other choices to read for 6th graders (which included Dark Life).

This book was about a really smart teenager (I believe 17) who I think was a thief/criminal. They (I think he) were committing a heist or stealing something, maybe a diamond. The teenager had a quite unique name.

The drawing on the cover was completely solid colors, no shading. The cover had a fancily cut diamond, I believe some glasses, and a red, white, and black color scheme. The background was either red or black and the diamond was definitely white. The glasses were either red or black, whatever the background wasn't. It looked sort of like this:

Answer 1

That cover with diamonds and glasses reminds me about the books by Jude Watson. She wrote a Scholastic book in 2015 called Loot with this cover.

On a foggy night in Amsterdam, a man falls from a rooftop to the wet pavement below. It's Alfie McQuinn, the notorious cat burglar, and he's dying. As sirens wail in the distance, Alfie manages to get out two last words to his young son, March: "Find jewels."

But March learns that his father is not talking about a stash of loot. He's talking about Jules, the twin sister March never knew he had. No sooner than the two find each other, they're picked up by the police and sent to the world's worst orphanage. It's not prison, but it feels like it.

March and Jules have no intention of staying put. They know their father's business inside and out, and they're tired of being pushed around. Just one good heist, and they'll live the life of riches and freedom most kids only dream about.

There are a few differences though

• The cover depicts a diamond and glasses, but glasses are on the diamond, not beside it.

• The color scheme of the cover is black-white-yellow without any red.

• The author's name is at the top of the cover, and not the bottom.

• The hero of the story has an unusual name, March McQuinn, but he is only 12, and so is his sister.

Except for that it seems to be rather close.

Jude Watson also wrote a sequel called Sting about the same boy, and with a cover depicting a diamond wearing glasses. It has a blue color scheme, though.

Answer 2

Could this be "Artemis Fowl: The Seventh Dwarf", a novella/short story by Eoin Colfer for World Book Day 2004?

Here it is on Wikipedia.