'The Lies of Locke Lamora' --A Review
One of the many books I should have read a long time ago, but am just doing so now.
The Lies of Locke Lamora is one of those books that I’ve been aware of for some time now but have never actually gotten around to reading.1 My reading habits are strange at the best of times and long stretches of non-fiction tend to be interspersed with random bursts of fiction and yes, trying books that I’ve heard of, but haven’t picked up yet.
In the course of planning the latest season of Serial Saturday2, I decided to push my writing a bit and play in a genre I had never tackled before: fantasy, and more specifically, for whatever reason, I wanted to try a fantasy heist. (The basic concept was 'Ocean’s 11, but a fantasy heist’, the execution was… let’s just say, it’ll be a while before it sees the light of day in a form I’m happy with.) Someone suggested reading The Lies of Locke Lamora to get an idea of what a fantasy heist/fantasy crime is like and so I gave it a try.
The book interweaves two stories together: the first describes the history of the city-state of Camorr and the founding of the Gentlemen Bastards an elite gang of thieves, masters of deception, disguise and fine cuisine brought together by Father Chains. Father Chains is a priest of the crooked warden, the god of Thieves, and buys a troublesome orphan thief named Locke Lamora to join his gang. They run confidence tricks on the rich and defy the Secret Peace, an unspoken agreement between the government and organized crime in the city that keeps nobles and the servants of justice off-limits.
Locke eventually becomes garrista (or chief) of the group after Chains dies. The Gentlemen Bastards, now fully trained up by Chains consist of Locke, Jean Tannen (an expert fighter), Calo, and Galdo Sanza, ‘jack of all trades’ identical twins, and Bug, a young apprentice. A female associate, Sabetha is also mentioned but is living elsewhere in the book. Organized crime in Camorr is run with an iron fist by Capa Barsavi, who collects a commission on all criminal activity under his purview. Locke and the Gentlemen Bastards work hard to maintain their image as a small-time, but an effective band of thieves and pickpockets and diligently pay their dues to the Capa, small though they are. Secretly though, they run jobs on nobility that win them large sums of money and they amass a small fortune- big enough that they can buy the trinkets they pass on to Barsavi as their dues. These operations are credited to the shadowy ‘Thorn of Camorr'.’
The second story finds Locke in the middle of a con, pretending to be Lukas Fehrwight, a merchant for Emberlain who is conning Don Lorenzo Salvara and his wife. Meanwhile, the criminal underworld is in turmoil as a mysterious criminal calling himself the Gray King has been killing Barsavi’s most trusted garristas. He summons Locke to help find the identity of the Grey King. Unfortunately for Locke, before he can begin to figure out how to do that, the Grey King finds him.
It turns out that the Grey King has secured the services of a Bondsmage and is very much aware of the secret fortune that the Gentlemen Bastards have amassed for themselves and the Grey King wants Locke to impersonate him to Barsavi. Reluctantly, Locke agrees- but in exchange for the magical protection of the Bondsmage from Barsavi’s wrath.
The Grey King, however, has other plans. Locke is betrayed, left for dead, his friends are killed. The Duke’s Secret Police have figured out his con with the Salvaras. Things are bleak, but Locke, together with Jean Tannen have to summon all their cunning, guile, and strength to avenge their friends and bring down the Gray King once and for all.
(Mild spoiler alert: there are, so far, two sequels and a third on the way to this book, so you can probably infer that Locke lives to fight another day.)
There is so much to like about this book. I love that it’s based on late medieval Venice. I love that it’s on an unnamed world as well- there’s the prior history of the city-states that gets explored, but there’s ancient history as well- the Eldren who built the elderglass towers that make up Camorr is mysterious and add a layer of mystery to the world-building. (Who are they? What do they look like? Are they human?). Lynch’s writing is full of excellent, subtle touches like that- ranging from the fashion to the types of wine and food that different places use. The world-building is fantastic.
The characters are wonderful and the book is a layer cake of twists, turns, and adventures that I absolutely loved. Plus, there’s a delightfully effective sprinkling of profanity throughout that makes this fantasy novel stand out. It’s fun. It’s gritty. It’s dark and delightful. Sign me up for more!
My Grade: **** out of ****
This includes authors like Patrick Rothfuss, Joe Abercrombie, N.K. Jemsin, Marlon Lewis— the list is endless.
Currently housed on https://www.reddit.com/r/WritingHub it’s been a lot of fun to try my hand at Serialized Writing— their Discord is pretty rocking too.