Crown Thief by David Tallerman - Sample Chapters

interrogation and move straight to grievous wounding. All told, the main roads were a bad idea.

I opted instead for the passageway. It led roughly northward by my reckoning, in the direction of the walls. Those were something else I’d do well to avoid; but if my remembered map of the city was correct, I wouldn’t be travelling anything like that far. In small recompense for its horrors, the sewer had deposited me almost on the doorstep of the address I sought.

Sure enough, I soon passed through a cramped courtyard I recognised, and from there ducked into a dead-end lane, whose ramshackle houses leaned madly inward as though eager to touch roofs. Everything about those crumbling abodes spoke of poverty and desperation. In most cases, that was undoubtedly what lay behind their crooked portals.

The door I opted for, however, was sturdy and – to the trained eye – double-locked and reinforced.

Though its occupant wasn’t quite rich, the penury of his location was carefully chosen and studiously maintained.

I rapped three times. After a few moments, a narrow hatch slid open, just wide enough for a pair of wrinkle-skewed eyes to peep through the gap.

“Hello, Franco,” I said.

Franco had been old when I first came to Altapasaeda. He’d been around for so long that there were those who claimed he’d invented the very concept of crime. However, to say his best days were behind him was an understatement. They were so far in the past that probably even he didn’t remem-