'Delightfully twisted and evil' GUARDIAN 'Highly recommended ... seek it out' Joe Hill Inquisitor Glokta; a crippled and increasingly bitter relic of the last war; former fencing champion turned torturer extraordinaire; is trapped in a twisted and broken body - not that he allows it to distract him from his daily routine of torturing smugglers. Nobleman; dashing officer and would-be fencing champion Captain Jezal dan Luthar is living a life of ease by cheating his friends at cards. Vain; shallow; selfish and self-obsessed; the biggest blot on his horizon is having to get out of bed in the morning to train with obsessive and boring old men. And Logen Ninefingers; an infamous warrior with a bloody past; is about to wake up in a hole in the snow with plans to settle a blood feud with Bethod; the new King of the Northmen; once and for all - ideally by running away from it. But as he's discovering; old habits die really; really hard indeed... ...especially when Bayaz gets involved. A bald old man with a terrible temper and a pathetic assistant; he could be the First of the Magi; he could be a spectacular fraud; but whatever he is; he's about to make the lives of Glotka; Jezal and Logen a whole lot more difficult...