Complications, of course, arise.īardugo does not stray far from these mechanics - no good heist writer does. There's a thing in a place (in this case, a scientist/magician with the secret formula for a kind of magical super-drug, locked away in a supposedly impenetrable prison), then a team of thieves who have to go to the place and steal the thing. I mean, how could there not be? Second only to submarine stories, the heist story is the most compact and driven of all possible plot frames. If 'Ocean's 11' was a textbook exercise in plotting, character development and the ol' bait-and-switch reveal, then 'Six Of Crows' is a thesis on how these lessons can be deployed in genre fiction.Īnd yes, there is a lot of good stuff. It's a nice set-piece, hobbled only by the fact that while it acts as the beginning of the tale, it isn't actually the beginning of the book. The first time we get a good view of him, he's having one of those brain-on-brain showdowns with another gang leader where he shows his mastery of the situation by never moving from the mark on which he stands while, all around him, a plan carefully laid off-page comes clicking together with clockwork precision. He has a mysterious past, a cool nickname (Dirtyhands), and Danny Ocean's knack for misdirection and covering all his bets. We begin with Kaz Brekker, 17-year-old criminal prodigy and second in command of a gang called the Dregs.

If Ocean's 11 was a textbook exercise in plotting, character development and the ol' bait-and-switch reveal, then Six Of Crows is a thesis on how these lessons can be deployed in genre fiction. It is so purely and simply a heist story that comparisons to one of the best heist stories ever told are inevitable. It would be stupid not to.īecause Six Of Crows is a heist story. Certainly no critic is going to write about the thing without making the connection. No one's going to hear the premise - six young criminals hired to break into (and then out of) the most secure prison in the world - without thinking of Danny Ocean and his crew. No one's going to read Leigh Bardugo's newest book, Six Of Crows, without thinking about Ocean's 11.

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