The Lies of Locke Lamora
core novel 2006 The Gentleman Bastards
Record
| First published | 2006 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.30 (359,555 ratings, collected 2026-09-13) |
| Page count | 752 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780553804676 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Locke Lamora is a headstrong con artist who leads an elite group of thieves known as the Gentleman Bastards in the canal-laced, Venice-inspired city of Camorr, running elaborate long cons against the city's wealthy nobility. Alternating between the present-day story and flashbacks to how Locke joined the group as a troublesome orphan under the mentorship of the priest Father Chains, the novel follows the crew as they clash with a mysterious new criminal power known as the Grey King, whose sudden rise threatens to upend the underworld's carefully maintained balance of power and expose secrets Locke has spent years hiding from the city's other thieves.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Gentleman Bastards
- Series: The Gentleman Bastards core; position 1 of 3 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Scott Lynch
Awards (verified)
- Locus Award (Best First Novel), 2007: finalist; Locus reader-poll placement, ranked 2nd.
- World Fantasy Award (Novel), 2007: nominated
- British Fantasy Award (August Derleth Award (Best Novel)), 2007: nominated; Correction: an automated Wikipedia extraction wrongly reported this as a win. sfbook.com confirms the actual 2007 winner was Tim Lebbon's Dusk; Lynch's book was a nominee only.
Notes
- From the series record (The Gentleman Bastards): Author-confirmed 7-book plan (Locus Online interview, 2013: 'there will be seven books and I can't break that rule'). Book 4, The Thorn of Emberlain, remains unpublished/undated as of the author's own July 2026 interview, displayed as in-progress per Constitution Article 8, not registered as a book (no confirmed title-page facts to record) and not penalized in any future ranking.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within the series The Gentleman Bastards: position 1 of 3: next Red Seas Under Red Skies (2007)
Sources
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Lynch
- Scott Lynch official site
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lies_of_Locke_Lamora
- https://sfbook.com
- https://www.sfadb.com/Scott_Lynch
← The Gentleman Bastards dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.