An orphan’s life is harsh—and often short—in the mysterious island city of Camorr. But young Locke Lamora dodges relentless danger, becoming a thief under the tutelage of a gifted con artist. As leader of the band of light-fingered brothers known as the Gentlemen 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.
This is a con-artist caper wearing a much darker coat than its reputation suggests. The jokes are sharp and profane, the crew has real chemistry, and the city feels like Renaissance Venice with the lights turned down. But the violence is graphic, and the cruelty isn't confined to the villains. Some readers get caught off guard.
The smartest move is the structure. Chapters alternate between the present con and how Locke learned his craft from a fake priest, and the flashbacks hand over character and plot instead of lecturing. A few readers find that jarring at first, and one thought a sequence ran long. Most come round. Locke also gets hurt and outthought, which gives the schemes actual tension. Not everyone warms to the cast, though, and that matters more here than in most heist books.
Publishers Weekly liked the quick-witted hero and the rich cultural detail, though it felt the realism of the setting made the melodrama less believable. Bloggers fell hard for the ensemble, the jokes and Camorr's Venice-like splendor. One dissenting reviewer enjoyed the heist machinery but couldn't sympathise with the cast and found the torture a sticking point.
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High-fantasy heist fiction gained a notable entry with the publication of the caper novel The Lies of Locke Lamora in June 2006. American fantasy author Scott Lynch made his debut with this novel after selling the manuscript to Orion Books in August 2004. The novel launched the Gentleman Bastard Sequence, a projected seven-volume series following clever thieves and con artists operating in intricate fantasy worlds.
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 2, 1978, Lynch grew up in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area as the eldest of three brothers. Before establishing his writing career, he worked a wide variety of jobs, including dishwasher, busboy, waiter, cook, web designer, office manager, and freelance writer. In 2004, Lynch moved to eastern Wisconsin, where he also served as a paid-on-call volunteer firefighter from 2005 to 2016. He relocated to western Massachusetts in 2016, where he lives with his wife, science fiction and fantasy author Elizabeth Bear.
Lynch's fantasy fiction combines detailed worldbuilding with the mechanics of heist stories, confidence tricks, and criminal capers. His narratives frequently explore themes of loyalty, friendship, survival, and death, balancing dark situations with quick-witted dialogue and humor. Beyond his main series, his work includes short stories such as "Locke Lamora and the Bottled Serpent" and serialized science fantasy such as Queen of the Iron Sands.
Gentleman Bastard
