Book 27 of 52: "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch

I picked this book off of a recommendation from the website Imgur, and man, it was a great choice!

Locke Lamora began his life in the city of Camorr as a street urchin, barely even qualifying as a thief, but found himself adopted and trained by a master manipulator and schemer.  The man soon rose to become a prominent thief who, although only somewhat adequate in public, privately masquerades as the Thorn of Camorr, the only thief daring to steal from nobility!


How would I describe this book?  Think of the confidence schemes and smoothness of the TV show White Collar, combined with the "rob from the rich" attitude of Robin Hood, merged with a fantasy city straight out of The Wheel of Time.  Although the setting does require a couple of consultations with the map at the front of the book, many of the locations are introduced well enough to keep the readers from feeling too confused.

The characters are realistic, their dialogue is smart and sassy, and the action is fast-paced.  Although it feels like Locke has everything under control, every loose end stitched up at the beginning of the book, we rapidly see things spiral out of control, and the master thief is struggling to hold on and ride out the storm.

By the end of the book, not to give away any secrets, the man seems to be on his very last lifeline, and it seems impossible that he'll be able to escape with his life, much less come out ahead of his enemies.

And yet, by the end of this book, I was flushed, cheering, and panting as if I'd just fought off the Yellowjacket police officers myself!

I've already got a reservation in at my library for the next book in the series, and my only concern is that, when it arrives, I won't be able to spare the time to sit down and read it all at once!

Time to read: 6 hours, all in one sitting.