::sighs:: Guys. This book. ::sighs again:: I'm struggling to put into words how enjoyable of a read The Lies of Locke Lamora was. I've seen it compared to Ocean's Eleven and Robin Hood but I've never seen Ocean's Eleven and their called the Gentlemen Bastards for a reason. Robbing the rich is indeed their modus operandi but giving that money to the poor? Only if you mean the poor, poor, sadly empty pockets of the Gentlemen Bastards themselves. Why, they're downright destitute! 
 The Lies of Locke Lamora follows a thieving gang known as the Gentlemen Bastards within the mafia-run bustling city of Camorr. The Gentlemen Bastards, run by the titled Locke Lamora himself, appear to the other gangs to be just a regular group of purse snatchers: skilled enough to live without fear of starvation but not actually a threat to Capa Barsavi (the head of the mafia, if you will) or anyone with any sort of ambition. This is the opposite of the case. Locke and his group go by another name, that of the Thorn of Camorr, who is renowned for swindling powerful Dons and Donias out of tens of thousands of crowns and then vanishing into the city without a trace. It is on one such con that our story begins, but someone calling himself The Grey King has entered into Camorr and is killing off Capa Barsavi's gang leaders one by one and soon Locke and the Bastards find themselves entangled in a horribly vicious and conniving scheme that goes far beyond simply conning crowns from wealthy nobles. 
 I was only 30% into the book when I came to the determination that unless we took a major derailment The Lies of Locke Lamora would quickly become one of my favorite books. Spoilers, this prediction of high quality did in fact come to pass and as my boyfriend and brother can attest to, I've been singing the book's praises whenever I have the chance. 
 As with most heist based works, the strength of the character's personalities drives a good portion of the book. The Bastards themselves (comprised of Locke, his right hand man Juan, the Sanza twins Galdo and Carlo and little apprentice named Bug) are all wonderfully fleshed out and play off of each other in entertaining ways. However, I would say that the feat the book accomplishes the best is simply how the escalation of the various threats is handled. I kept reaching what I had assumed to be the "sh*t just got real" moment of the book...only to have another more intense scene happen 50 pages later... only to have ANOTHER EVEN MORE intense scene happen 50 pages after that (guestimating on the page count, is probably longer than 50 pages). But I never encountered plot fatigue because Mr. Lynch would expertly intermingle the intense Grey King related scenes with either Locke and the other Bastards performing a minor con in order to help them obtain tools/resources they need or flashing back to Locke growing up and learning the tools of his craft. 
 That was another thing that Mr. Lynch did quite well: the order in which he told the story. Throughout the book there are interludes that either tell you about the history of Camorr (thereby giving you a deeper background as to the politics of the city) or showing Locke and the Bastards at various points in their training. Normally these kinds of interludes, although interesting, frustrate me because I'm so invested in the main story that I NEED to get back to it. However, Mr. Lynch seemed to know when exactly the emotional tension required a quick breather and would place the interludes at these moments. I never once found myself skimming through an interlude in order to get back to the main story (which is a feat in an of itself for me). 
 I could go on and on about all the wonderful things I think this book did but I would prefer this review not to become more rambling than my reviews already are. One minor thing that I wasn't too impressed by was the main villain's motivations, simply because they were kinda expected and done before. But the rest of the book and the pure evilness of the villain was handled so well that I didn't care about the standard plot motivations he had. I am unsure where this series goes after the events of Lies of Locke Lamora. Some groundwork was laid out for the continuation of the series (Sabatha's character in particular is mentioned a lot and yet never plays a part in this specific book) but given the conclusions Lies had... man, I don't know where we're going with this, Lies in and of itself was a fairly insular and well wrapped up book. However, I am incredibly excited to continue on this journey with the Gentlemen Bastards as far as Mr. Lynch wants to take me. 
 **endnote that didn't fit anywhere** FYI there is a lot of swearing and overall vulgar language in this book. I felt it fitting given their less than reputable status as thieves and con men but if you are bothered by foul language, this might not be the book for you. But if you don't care about that, please do give it a read. It is SO GOOD.