Welcome back! Today we’ll discuss the second installment of the Six of Crows duology; ‘Crooked Kingdom‘. Author Leigh Bardugo also wrote this book, it was published in September of 2016.
Continuing where we left off in the last post, Inej is being held captive by Jan Van Eck and is slowly losing hope that the Dregs will ever come to save her, it is implied that she is tortured for information on the Dregs and Kaz. She refuses to say anything so Van Eck decides to lure Kaz using Inej in an attempt to finally kill him.
However, Kaz and Wylan manage to kidnap Van Eck’s pregnant wife, Alys, and use her as leverage to get Inej back. During this hostage exchange, Van Eck reveals he has accused Kaz of kidnapping his son (Wylan) to the stadwatch (Ketterdam police). Both the stadwatch and shu-soldiers (Soldiers from Shu-Han who are looking for Grisha) attack the dregs, but they manage to flee.
Simultaneously, Jesper’s father, Colm Fahey (A farmer in Novyi Zem), arrives in the city. Colm took out a loan on his farm to pay for Jesper’s education and the bank recently moved up the collection day on the debt. He attempts to contact Jesper through the university as he believes he is still a student there but once this proves useless he goes to Ketterdam himself.
He finally reunites with his son minutes before the attack from the stadwatch and shu-soldiers force them to escape. The dregs spin several lies to convince Colm that Jesper has just temporarily paused his studies and is not fully a gang member, unconvinced, he gives Jesper three days before they both return to Novyi Zem. In the meantime, Kaz arranges for him to stay in a hotel.
Kaz is still determined to ruin Jan Van Eck and get the rest of his money so he hatches a plan to destroy his business (Van Eck is a sugar merchant) by infesting Van Eck’s sugar silos with weevils. Nina and Inej agree to help him as long as he promises to help them smuggle the persecuted Grisha out of Ketterdam and into Ravka. They decide to steal Van Eck’s ship to transport the Grisha.
While the plan is being carried out, Jesper and Matthias stay in their hideout protecting Kuwei. Kaz and Wylan break into Van Eck’s home to find his seal, which they need to forge documents to take the Grisha on his ship. Nevertheless, they are stopped by Pekka Rollins, who is now allied with Van Eck (Over their mutual greed and hatred for Kaz), and escape unable to steal the seal.
Meanwhile, Inej and Nina infiltrate the sugar silos. Pekka Rollins sends an assassin named Dunyasha after Inej who ambushed her while on top of the silos. Inej is losing the fight and about to fall to her death when Nina, in a desperate attempt to save her, summons an army of dead bodies (A power she did not know she had) to protect Inef from the fall. Jesper and Matthias are also attacked by Pekka Rollins’ men in another attempt to kidnap Kuwei. The dregs manage to escape unscathed once again and reunite in Colm’s hotel room.
During this time, Nina reveals to the group that she now has the ability to control dead bodies, attributing it to her previous consumption of Jurda Parem, and Kaz hatches a new plan.