The Lies of Locke Lamora - read along Part 2

This is the second part of the Lies of Locke Lamora read along. This week the questions have been provided by Dark Cargo. I think I may actually be on time this week!

1) Do you think Locke can pull off his scheme of playing a Midnighter who is working with Don Salvara to capture the Thorn of Camorr? I mean, he is now playing two roles in this game - and thank goodness for that costume room the Gentlemen Bastards have!

We’re talking about Locke Lamora here. THE Locke Lamora! His entire life that readers have seen so far is one big elaborate lie. He can pull off dual roles with his eyes shut.

2) Are you digging the detail the author has put into the alcoholic drinks in this story?


I’d never really thought about this before, but yes I love the sound of some of the Camorri cocktails and wonder if Scott Lynch lists bartending somewhere on his CV.

3) Who is this mysterious lady Gentlemen Bastard Sabetha and what does she mean to Locke?

You get the impression that Sabetha and Locke were once an item and would like to hear more about her. I found a comment about wanting her back a little less crazy, which was said by one of the Sanza’s at dinner one night during an interlude to be rather telling and highly amusing.

4) Are you as creeped out over the use of Wraithstone to create Gentled animals as I am?

Oh, yes the Gentling is really creepy, not just that, but the effect Wraithstone has on humans, too, turning them into mindless addicts.

5) I got a kick out of child Locke's first meeting with Capa Barsavi and his daughter Nazca, which was shortly followed up in the story by Barsavi granting adult Locke permission to court his daughter! Where do you think that will lead? Can you see these two together?

Nazca comes across as not dissimilar to Sabetha in personality, a good friend, but a dangerous enemy. I could never see her and Locke together, they’re friends, but that’s all, she was as horrified by her father’s idea as Locke was.

6) Capa Barsavi is freaked out over rumors of The Gray King and, in fact, us readers are privy to a gruesome torture scene. The Gray King is knocking garristas off left and right. What do you think that means? Barsavi is scared and paranoid.

The Gray King has an agenda, he’s killing garristas and the biggest garrista of the lot is Barsavi himself. The Gray King whoever he is, is announcing his presence and killing off Barsavi’s people to draw the big fish out.

7) In the Interlude: The Boy Who Cried for a Corpse, we learn that Father Chains owes an alchemist a favor, and that favor is a fresh corpse. He sets the boys to figuring out how to provide one, and they can't 'create' the corpse themselves. How did you like Locke's solution to this conundrum?

I loved that we got to see some of Locke’s boyhood escapades. If you were going to make a sitcom out of The Lies of Locke Lamora, this would be an excellent episode. I did wonder how Locke was going to get a corpse, I knew he could do it, he’d already proven that with some of the things he’d done even before the Thiefmaker sold him to Chains, but then when Chains put certain conditions in place Locke had to get creative. The funniest thing of the lot was not only did they get the corpse, thus fulfilling Chains’ brief they ended up making a profit out of it and Chains had all these people giving him extra offerings for what happened in the marketplace. I was in tears of laughter!