It has taken me three books, but I've finally decided I dislike Lynch's writing style, and it's not even because of the fact that it is overflowing with the most colourfull cursing I've ever seen in print. I actually quite enjoy that and the fantastic humour that comes with it.

The problem can be described in one word: 'interludes'. There's nothing wrong with interludes an sich, as long as they serve a cause. Lynch, however, seems to be throwing them around just for the heck of it.

In Lies it was just annoying, but at least there it served the purpose of answering the question what kind of hell Locke had put the Thiefmaker through that his death had been bought and his life had been sold, all for a few coppers.

But now it's just stories of the "good old days", that would have served a much better purpose as the first half of Lies. That way, it's a nice build-up of the story, with plenty of time to get to know the world, and to understand and connect with Locke and his fellow bastards.

Which is very handy in the second half of the first book. Where my reaction now was something like "oh bugger, the writer killed off my favourite characters" (a.k.a. the Sanzas), it could be a proper sob-fest if there had been more time to bond with the characters.

Luckily, the story itself is pretty good, although it hasn't been able to top the first book, in my opinion. The lack of a 'big heist' in this book is a big part of that, but the characters made up for most of that.

I was delighted to find that we finally get to meet Sabetha, the elusive readhead that Locke has been swooning over all this time, and has obviously played a great role in the Bastard's lifes. Now that I've met her, she's both worse then Locke made her out to be, and even better than the other Bastards describe her.

She truly is Locke's match in scheming and abilities, arguiably even better. I can't blame them for picking Locke over her as the leader of the Gentlemen Bastards though, because she has the most annoying urge to overthink every little thing that crosses her path and still jump to the wrong conclusions.

Karthain and it's (magical) inhabitants seemed to be a bit lazy compared to the complicated business of Camorr and Tal Verrar, but I enjoyed the twists and turns the story took.

Both the main storyline and the interlude storyline were a fun read, even though they both took the easier road so the focus could lay more on the character relations then on the 'big heist' they're pulling.

I look forward to the next book, but I wouldn't mind if this one will have lost the interludes.