The Ultimate Fantasy Series Ranking

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Cover of Thief of Night

Thief of Night

core novel 2025 The Charlatan Duology

Record

First published2025
Original language EN
Work typenovel
Canon statuscore
Reader rating3.97 (11,633 ratings, collected 2026-08-21)
Page count277
First-edition ISBN9781250812223
Internal chronology2

Synopsis

Thief of Night is the second and concluding volume of the Charlatan Duology, continuing directly from Book of Night. Charlie Hall, established in the first book as a skilled but morally compromised thief within the shadow-magic underworld of gloamists, is drawn deeper into a world of secret societies and shadowy conspiracies as the stakes of her past choices catch up with her. The novel expands on the gloamist magic system introduced earlier and deepens Charlie's relationship with Red, testing whether someone as practiced at deception and theft as Charlie can also risk being honest, both with herself and with the people she has let into her life. As in the first book, the story combines heist and thriller elements with dark fantasy, following Charlie as she is forced to reckon with whether her flaws are liabilities or, in the right circumstances, a kind of strength.

Where it sits

Notes

  • From the series record (The Charlatan Duology): A complete two-book adult heist/noir fantasy about gloamists, magicians who manipulate shadows for power; Holly Black's first novel marketed explicitly for adult readers.

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 Charlatan Duology: position 2 of 2: previous Book of Night (2022)

Sources

← The Charlatan Duology dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.