Criminal Kaz Brekker has been offered wealth beyond what he could ever imagine but to claim it he has to pull off a seemingly impossible heist. He must break into a military stronghold that’s never been breached, retrieve a hostage that seems to be a mad scientist who could unleash magical havoc on the world and survive long enough to collect the money. Kaz puts together a six man crew and together they might just pull off the impossible if they don’t kill each other first.

I love stories about heists and this one is set in the world of the Grisha Trilogy, a trilogy that I haven’t actually read. But after hearing that even though it was in the same world, you don’t have to have read the original trilogy as there was no big crossovers or important plot points to know, I was eager to read Six of Crows. Having read it I can say the only thing I felt I sometimes missed having not read the Grisha trilogy was how the Grisha powers worked and what the different nationalities meant and valued. Still, as I got into Six of Crows I soon picked it up but I was a bit confused to begin with because it really is an intricate world.

The crew in Six of Crows follows the usual tropes you’ve seen in any heist movie or story before. There’s the mastermind (Kaz), the demolitions expert (Wylan), the inside man (Matthias), the sharp shooter (Jesper), the spy (Inej) and the one with a very special set of skills (Nina). While they all fit these roles they all aren’t just those archetypes. You begin Six of Crows not knowing much about any of these characters and it’s not till the half way point that you think you have a grasp on them. As the book progresses you learn more about each characters backstory and why they are the criminal they are. The way these characters bounce off each other is a highlight of the book, Jesper is the joker of the group and always has a sarcastic comment – I won’t lie, he’s my favourite closely followed by Inej.

Like any heist, nothing really goes according to plan for Kaz and his crew and quite often you, like some of the characters, are in the dark about what the plan actually is. That makes it gripping and exciting as you’re never sure if they’ll succeed and if they’ll all come out of it unscathed.

Six of Crows is a great example of the heist genre, full of twists and turns and with an ending like that I can’t wait for the sequel. 4/5.