I have finished a little over half of The Thief Lord and I have enjoyed it so far. Funke uses a lot of great imagery which I love. She also does a good job of leading the reader to believe characters are set in their ways. When in reality, they end up changing for the good. By that I’m mainly talking about Victor. In the beginning of the book he seemed to be out to get Prosper and Bo no matter what. But by the middle of the book whenever he is captured by the kids, you find out he really does want to help them. He even lies to Prosper’s aunt and tells her that Prosper and Bo have left Venice. I have to admit though, no matter how nice he continues to become, he seems a little strange to me. I think it is a little weird when he is introduced to us in the beginning while he is trying on high-heeled boots and camouflages in his spare time, even though I know disguises are necessary to his line of work. Also he is overly attached to his two turtles and they seem to take up most of his thoughts outside of detective work. But all of that aside, I was not expecting the first twist of the novel. I don’t want to spoil the surprise for someone else who might read this. I’ll just say that when Victor goes to talk to the owner of the Stella, I was expecting him to find the address to the theatre and nothing more. I’m eager to find out what the next surprise will be and who The Conte really is when the children go to give him the wooden wing.