I'd heard good things about The Lies of Locke Lamorra. Coming off of Blackfoot Physics, which I had several issues with, this book was a joy. I was caught up in the first chapter and blew through the book in a weekend. Not every bit was great, but it was a solid, unique fantasy novel.
Locke Lamorra is so not a fantasy hero – he's not even a fantasy villain. He's the scum your D&D party trips over in a random encounter. Young Locke is an orphan after a plague. With other orphans he's shuffled off and bought by the, for lack of a better term, thieves training guild. Locke steals, mugs, pickpockets, and quickly becomes too much for his master, ending with the great line only a few pages in the book as this master tries to sell him off to a beggar guild, “Either you buy him or I have to cut his throat tonight.”
We quickly move to an older Locke, now a con man and involved in deep schemes to defraud the rich. His plans are timed, tricky, and always within a breath of disaster – and they don't always work, so there's no sense of him being invulnerable. Locke and his companions, The Gentleman Bastards, are all drawn wonderfully with loves and depth. Locke is clever, smart, ready with a disarming word, but useless in a fight. The twins are like his older brothers, backing him up. Bug is the youngest, newest member of the troupe and is eager to prove himself to his betters, taking risks at every turn. Finally, Jean is the studious one, running the numbers for the gang and also the only decent brawler among them.
As the story progresses the con games become involved in an underworld war for control of crime in the city and things spiral far beyond Locke's control. His Capa faces threats to his leadership from a strange rival, the city's spymaster gets a lead on Locke's latest con game, and the new would-be crime lord picks Locke out to help him overthrow the city, like it or not. Locke dances as fast as he can between all of them. He almost keeps up.
I'd recommend it to any fantasy lover, any who like mafia movies, or anyone who likes the Grifters. My two disappointments are Lynch will draw wonderful characters and then kill them off; I can understand why he does it, but I miss them. The other is that I've heard the sequel is notably weaker, and from reading the preview chapter at the end of this book my interest in continuing this series faded.
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