Double Speak
Welcome back to another year of A Crossword Rose, where legally, all I can say about this puzzle is that this blog officially does not advocate any real life crimes, but cool heist teams are pretty sweet. This is actually my second puzzle posted this year. The first was a collab with Dob on the Crossweird site, which you should definitely do if you haven't done it yet! I think it's my favorite theme I've ever made.
Today's puzzle is an entry to this month's Crosshare midi contest, which had a prompt that lent itself nicely to this 2-entry theme set. As is so often the way, I set out to clue this at an easy level, and then... wound up not doing that. So expect the typical Rose puzzle fare: some footholds but also a bit of trickier wordplay, some musical theater, some silly meme-ish clues, and one possibly unfair (but hopefully not too unfair) Lord of the Rings related crossing. Thanks to my sister for testing, and enjoy!