Best Served Cold
core novel 2009 First Law World
Record
| First published | 2009 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.25 (118,865 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780575082458 |
Synopsis
A standalone novel set in the First Law world, Best Served Cold takes place in Styria during a brutal nineteen-year conflict in which Grand Duke Orso wages war against the League of Eight while bankers, priests, and darker powers manipulate events behind the scenes. Monza Murcatto, known as the Snake of Talins and the infamous Butcher of Caprile, is a celebrated mercenary commander serving Duke Orso whose popularity becomes her undoing when Orso orchestrates her betrayal, leaving her thrown from a mountain and presumed dead. She survives with a shattered body and sets out for revenge against the seven people responsible, assembling a band of mercenaries and specialists, including an unreliable drunkard, a master poisoner, and a barbarian with an unusual moral compass, to help her hunt them down across war-torn Styria.
Where it sits
- Universe: First Law World
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Joe Abercrombie
Notes
- Standalone ('The Great Leveller' informal grouping).
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within First Law World (standalone work): position 4 of 11: previous Last Argument of Kings (2008) · next The Heroes (2011)
Sources
← First Law World dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.