I'm not even going to pretend that lowered expectations didn't factor into me liking this book.

It was a book club pick, and an author I had absolutely no experience with. My wife just happened to have the audiobook so hey, low threshold for jumping on board. The early chapters didn't necessarily wow me, because Hanz Brekker seemed to have the magical skill of being one step ahead of everyone because the writer gave him a copy of the outline ahead of time, and him being voiced by someone who sounds like the Cool Kid from a Disney Channel show didn't help matters.

But I kept listening, and an odd thing happened after a while: I realized I actually cared about these characters. They all had distinct personalities and motives that made their begrudging team up worth reading. And by the end I actually realized I wanted to read the next book.

One of the novel features of this, in terms of heist stories, is that it manages to have it both ways. Some heist stories give you the entire outline, and the main question is what complications will arise and will they pull it off. Others make most of the actual plan oblique to the reader, and you get surprised as they go along. Over the course of this story Bardugo manages to do both without either feeling like a cheat.

Pleasantly surprised, and now willing to check out more work by the author.