This novel was much more of a non-fiction accounting of events from court transcripts than a traditional fiction story. As such, the prose was rather dry and to the point. You don't get to know the characters very well and are not terribly invested in their fates. That being said, the events leading up to the robbery were fairly interesting. We get to learn quite a bit about life in the Victorian era of London and about about the operation of the criminal underworld at that time.