Portrait of a Thief

Liked the quick start, bringing everyone together but also layering it that there is a bit of history between each one of them in different ways.  Gets to the crux of the journey right away and by page 50 the protagonists are already into it.  Yet, it could end up being a little unbelievable that a group of college kids with no criminal experience are going to pull off the task at hand based on what they are using as reference points for the plan.  And some things seem to happen or come a little too easily for the protagonists.  A necessary nitpick significant enough to call out - at times the same exchange of dialogue is separated by a lengthy prose that often loses the flow or even connectivity of the conversation.  Takes a good, if not small, unexpected turn around the midway mark away from the implausible and cookie-cutter path it was headed down as it seems to then dive deeper into character development, which ultimately makes for the best part of the book. Ending was a bit lackluster and could be considered a bit of a cop-out against what may have been expected or hoped for.