Crooked Kingdom

Crooked Kingdom

First Edition Cover
Author	Leigh Bardugo
Country	United States
Language	English
Series	Six of Crows duology
Genre	Fantasy, Young Adult
Published	2016 (Henry Holt and Co.)
Media type	Print (hardcover and paperback), audiobook, e-book
Pages	546
ISBN	9781627792134
OCLC	962228078
Preceded by	Six of Crows

Crooked Kingdom is a fantasy novel written by Leigh Bardugo.^[1] Crooked Kingdom is set in a world loosely inspired by the 20th century Europe.^[2] Crooked Kingdom takes place days after the first book finishes.^[3] The plot is told from the close third-person viewpoints of six different characters, plus a first and last chapter from the point of view of two minor characters.

Plot

In the prologue, a Grisha man is shown being kidnapped by a winged Shu man.

The book starts in a gambling parlor where Jesper and Nina keep the lawyer of Jan van-eck busy while Kaz and Wylan search the lawyers office for property information of Jan Van-eck. After they find what they need, Kaz plans to kidnap Van-Eck’s young wife and trade her for Inej who is being held captive. Meanwhile, Jespers’s father arrives at the city to meet him as the bank is pushing the deadline for the debt Jesper owes. As Jesper go to meet with his father. They got attacked but manage to escape. Kaz tells Jesper's father to give them three days to get the money and to wait in a hotel in the city.

Afterwards the crew commence their plan to kidnap. Their plan go accordingly and they manage to trade Inej for Van-eck’s wife. However, during the trade, three Shu soldiers with extraordinary features, attack Nina, Jesper and other Grisha in the surrounding area. They all manage to get away as Nina shoots one of them point blank in the eye and Wylan set another in fire. The crew meets up in their hideout and Kaz reveals his plan to sabotage Van-eck’s sugar silos. This job shall crank up the sugar price and Kaz had already bought shares in sugar companies. Nina and Inej persuades Kaz to smuggle out the remaining Grisha in the city. Kaz plans to smuggle them in Van-Eck’s own ship.

Kaz and Wylan goes to Van-Eck house to steal the seal they need, Nina and Inej goes to sabotage the sugar silos. However, all of them are attacked and it is revealed that Pekka Rollins is in leage with Van-Eck. Pekka also attacks the hideout Kaz was using to keep Kuwei with Jesper and Matthias. However, they all manage to escape the scene to meet up in the hotel kaz had put Jesper's father in. Nina shows her new abilities to control dead bodies. Kaz, left with no other option, declares an auction for the indenture of Kuwei.

In the auction, Kaz disguises the Grisha from the embassy as the council of tides. They claim that the auction is biased because Van-Eck gave money to the Shu people. The money was in fact was channeled to the crows themselves by scamming the merchant council. They manage to fake Kuwei's death and smuggle him out. Amidst the job, Matthias is shot and later he dies. Kaz bluffs Pekka into believing that he has his son berried alive. He leaves the city in search for his son. With his father gone. Wylan inherits the properties of his family.

At the end, Kaj finds Inej's parents and Inej threatens Pekka out of his business.

Characters

• Kaz Brekker, a master thief and lock pick with a reputation for doing anything for the right price. He is also known as Dirtyhands. He is described as always wearing black leather gloves and carrying a cane with a crow's head on it. He is part of the Dregs.

• Inej Ghafa, a Suli acrobat who has a talent for sneaking around. She was kidnapped and forced to work in a brothel known as the "Menagerie" until Kaz bought her contract. She is also known as the Wraith.

• Wylan van Eck, a merchant's son with some talent for demolition, who Kaz takes on as a hostage in hopes of using him as leverage against Jan Van Eck. He is unable to read due to his dyslexia.

• Matthias Helvar, a former Drüskelle (witchhunter from Fjerda). He has a history with Nina, as the two of them helped each other after a storm destroyed their ship. They trusted each other, until Nina accused him of being a slaver, leading to his incarceration at Hellgate. He hates Nina for her betrayal and for his initial prejudice against Grisha, but he also loves her. Kaz frees Matthias from Hellgate because of his knowledge of the Ice Court as well as for his skills as a soldier.

• Nina Zenik, a powerful Heartrender who worked in a brothel named "White Rose". She was a soldier of the Ravkan Second Army who was captured by Fjerdan Drüskelle, leading to her first encounter with Matthias. She betrayed his trust to protect him from Grisha spies, choosing to stay in Ketterdam in the hopes of finding a way to free him from prison. She was initially recruited by Pekka Rollins to join the Dime Lions, but after meeting Inej, who brought a counteroffer from Kaz, she decided to join the Dregs instead.

• Jesper Fahey, a dark-skinned Zemeni sharpshooter with a gambling problem. It is revealed he is a Fabrikator as well later in the plot. His father believes that he is studying in a university at Ketterdam.

• Jan Van Eck, a rich and prominent merchant who sits on Ketterdam's Merchant Council. He makes a deal with Kaz Brekker to retrieve the creator of jurda parem from the Ice Court.

• Pekka Rollins, Kaz's ultimate adversary after he conned him and ruined his life. He is the rich owner of a successful casino in Ketterdam and is always up to no good in one way or the other.

Reception

Kirkus Review states “This is dark and violent—one notable scene features a parade of teens armed with revolvers, rifles, pistols, explosives, and flash bombs—but gut-wrenchingly genuine.”^[4]

References