The Lies of Locke Lamora

by Scott Lynch

An orphan’s life is harsh - and often short - in the mysterious island city of Camorr.

But young Locke Lamora dodges death and slavery, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentleman Bastards, Locke is soon infamous, fooling even the underworld’s most feared ruler. But in the shadows lurks someone still more ambitious and deadly. Faced with a bloody coup that threatens to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the enemy at his own brutal game - or die trying. 

• I insist you read this one.

• Story

  • Set in the Venice-inspired city of Camorr, Locke Lamora leads his gang of high-end thieves to rip off the rich with elaborate cons. The cons are fantastic, with false identities, costumes, and exceptional dialogue.

  • The plot is incredible: high-tension, high-stakes, full of twists and turns that escalate in waves. More than once I had to put the book down and pace, muttering to myself about how brilliant the story was.

• Characters

  • The characters are fleshed out and are plausible, being individual without straying into the realm of overdone 'caricatures'.

  • Relationships seem real and draw you in, making you care about not only what happens to individual characters, but how they relate to one another.

  • The dialogue is excellent - familiar banter between friends, guarded high society conversations, witty insults, and clever deceptions on every page . Power plays and social dominance are clear in the dialogue, which subtly builds on Camorri society and the characters' views of one another.

• Worldbuilding

  • Firstly and above all else, Camorr is dazzling, rich and cool; full of alchemy, sea monsters and crossbows.

  • The worldbuilding is consistent and small quirks are well explained and reaffirmed at different stages throughout the book. This is essential to making a fictional world plausible, and it gives the author novel ways to authentically develop the plot and characters. 

  • While the narrators explanations of landmarks and customs reduced the feeling of 'telling', there were some parts where I think it could have been included as part of the action or dialogue a little more.

  • I personally didn't like how there were some crucial elements that weren't explained.  Alchemy seems capable of producing anything Mr. Lynch needed for a scene, and there were no attempts to explain the magic system. I appreciate that it made magic more mysterious and threatening, especially as the protagonists can't use it, but it still feels a little like a blank spot.

• Prose

  • As a first published book, this is astonishing.

  • Some incredibly enjoyable prose going on here, with some fantastic turns of phrase, great banter, a well-developed and real-feeling world, and beautiful descriptions. Excellent writing throughout.

  • Despite the above, there is a heavy use of adverbs to describe tones of voice or the emotion of characters.

• Also,

  • This book is gritty with intense, graphic scenes, some of which are horrific. While at times some of it seemed over the top, they did give a grim edge to the world and really helped to raise the stakes.

  • I just loved how Locke Lamora lies all the time, and you as the reader knows he's lying, but you don't know why. Then by the time you know why he lied, he's lied again, and you keep reading to find out why.