He sends her into hiding for a few days, promising to take care of everything, but when she emerges again Darro’s corpse has washed up on the shores of the river. When the leader of her team decides to target a member of the city guard for their next pull, Alys gets caught and is able to get away only with the help of her older brother Darro.

Alys is a young woman who spends her days running pulls, teaming up with others from Longhill to steal from those more fortunate, especially on festival days when people are out in their finery. The story starts with an eagle-eyed view of the city, coming at it a year after the main events begin the Prince has died and the city is in limbo, but before things gain too wide a perspective the focus narrows down to Alys and how she came to her current situation. Longhill is the home of the Inlisc people, and it is the poorest area of the city, made of fragile wood and looked down upon by the rest of Kithamar. The part of the city we see the most is Longhill, where the main character Alys is from. Kithamar is a fascinating location – it is a huge and ancient city that, over the years, has swallowed up smaller settlements until old enemies have settled into being relatively comfortable neighbours. What a book! I’m not always a fan of slow fantasy (though I know it’s often necessary for good world building) but there was something so deliberate about the pace of this book, like a vulture slowly circling its prey, sprawling much like the city its set in. Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the eARC in exchange for an honest review. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives. Swept up in an intrigue as deep as the roots of Kithamar, where the secrets of the lowest born can sometimes topple thrones, the story Alys chooses will have the power to change everything. When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why. Kithamar is a centre of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold.

Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham