Return of the Thief (Queen’s Thief #6)

In the triumphal final volume of the Queen’s Thief series, more than 20 years after the publication of The Thief, Turner sticks her landing with aplomb. Dissent from within threatens to undo the delicate union of nations Attolia, Eddis, and Sounis under Eugenides, former Thief of Eddis. As the emperor of the massive Mede empire begins a full-scale invasion, the countries marshal their resources to defend a crucial territory, testing the allied nations’ bond. Narrator Pheris, an often mistreated nonverbal child, born “with the infirmity that ran in my family,” becomes Eugenides’s attendant. Through cautious, wily Pheris’s adept observations (“the less people want to see you, the easier it becomes to be invisible in plain sight”), Turner highlights Eugenides’s actions, personality—sometimes kind, often calculatingly brutal—and knack for the unexpected reversal. Building to a succession of stirring climactic scenes that twine long-standing thematic and narrative arcs, Turner offers a fulfilling conclusion that rewards knowledge of the previous books. Ages 13–up. [em](Oct.) [/em]