Bound To Stay Bound

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Bulletin for the Center... - 01/01/2012 The civil war that Digger helped start (in Starcrossed, BCCB 10/10) hasn’t yet reached the city of Gerse, where she has returned after her sojourn with a group of nobles, hoping to regain some semblance of her old life as a thief. She’s having trouble finding her feet, though, as the death of her boyfriend and partner, Tegen, has marked her as bad luck among her suspicious underworld friends. The nobles, however, know her worth as a devotee of Tiboran, the god of those who must lie for a living, and they arrange to embroil her in yet another of their intrigues. This time she is drawn into a murder investigation; the sweet, good-natured Durrel Decath, who saved her from the Greenmen on the night of Tegen’s death, has been accused of murdering his much older, ill-tempered wife. At first more than willing to help clear his name, she soon begins to wonder if her faith in him is misplaced, as the evidence she gathers becomes more and more confusing and seems in fact to point to his guilt. Digger’s feisty spirit and clever wit, limned as it is with a deep vein of grief and loneliness, render her an irresistible character as she navigates the social and spiritual eccentricities of her world. A subtle but extremely effective parsing of that world according to its various gods allows strange dealings between rich and poor, law-abiding and not, as Digger the thief, for instance, blends in as easily with the nobles as she does with other thieves and actually finds herself feeling guilty when she tells the truth. Familiarity with the first book is absolutely essential for re-entering Digger’s life with its complicated connections and loyalties, but the re-immersion is every bit as engrossing and satisfying as the initial plunge and the breathtaking surprise ending will leave readers aching for the next installment. With its compelling and complex characters and political intrigues, this series will especially appeal to devotees of Turner’s Queen’s Thief series (The Thief, BCCB 11/96, etc.). KC - Copyright 2012 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois.

School Library Journal - 01/01/2012 Gr 9 Up—Durrel and Raffin from Starcrossed (Scholastic, 2010) are back. Pickpocket Digger is now in her home city of Gerse, but life has not returned to normal. Civil war is dividing the country and the peoples' loyalties. Those with magical gifts are being imprisoned and tortured; and Digger's brother, Werne the Inquisitor, is trying to compel her to assist him in rounding them up. In the midst of this, the young lord Durrel has been arrested for the murder of his wife. As he once saved Digger's life, she vows to help him. What she discovers is a muddle of politics, intrigue, and poison that even the most accomplished sleuth would be hard pressed to sort out. This mystery/fantasy hybrid is intriguing and complex, and the setting is well-imagined. Digger is a scrappy, cynical, morally deficient, yet honorable, thief. Readers who like independent heroines and/or Philip Pullman's "Sally Lockhart Mystery" series (Knopf) will enjoy this novel. Although confident readers can follow the twisting plot, the complicated situations may cause confusion for some teens not familiar with the first book.—Heather M. Campbell, formerly at Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO - Copyright 2012 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission.

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