Six of Crows. Book 2: Crooked Kingdom

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo is the second novel in the Six of Crows duology, returning Kaz Brekker and his crew to Ketterdam after an extraordinary heist. They expected a reward. Instead, betrayal has left them weakened and fighting to survive. Their skills remain formidable, but resources and allies are scarce, while people with far greater power are converging on the city. This English paperback concludes the duology with a struggle over revenge, loyalty and the secrets of jurda parem.

Crooked Kingdom: Kaz Brekker’s crew after the heist

The success of the earlier mission has created new dangers rather than a secure escape from the past. Powerful interests want access to a drug capable of changing the balance of power in the Grisha world. Ketterdam becomes a meeting place for those ambitions, and the crew must survive among people who can use wealth, influence and force to obtain what they want.

Old opponents and new enemies test Kaz’s ability to plan ahead. Yet cunning alone is not enough when the team’s loyalties are fragile. Each person brings a history, private desires and reasons to distrust others. The group must decide what remains worth protecting when survival and personal ambition no longer point comfortably in the same direction.

Leigh Bardugo on revenge, redemption and belonging

The sequel shifts the emphasis from attempting an impossible job to living with its consequences. A dangerous success changes the people who achieved it and the attention directed towards them. Readers who enjoyed the first book’s planning and reversals can follow a new contest in which the city itself becomes the field of manoeuvre, with streets, reputations and connections all affecting the possibilities.

Alongside the strategic conflict, the novel continues the emotional story of an ensemble that does not fit easily into respectable society. Their cooperation carries weight because it must survive fear, competing motives and the memory of betrayal. The question of whether they can trust one another is therefore practical as well as personal. A failure of loyalty can undo a plan, while a chosen commitment can change what a character believes is possible.

Six of Crows book 2 in paperback

This English paperback carries ISBN 9781780622316 and is published by Orion Children’s Books. Read Six of Crows first: Crooked Kingdom directly develops the outcome of that novel and the relationships established there. It belongs to the wider Grishaverse, but its immediate place is as the second half of this particular two-book story.

Choose Crooked Kingdom if you want a fantasy sequel that gives consequences as much importance as daring action. It offers a city under pressure, a crew with little room for error and an expanding contest over dangerous knowledge. The pleasure of following the schemes is inseparable from the question of what the outcasts might become if they survive them.