The Lies of Locke Lamora

The Lies of Locke Lamora is a 2006 fantasy novel by American writer Scott Lynch, the first book of the Gentleman Bastard series. Elite con artists calling themselves the "Gentleman Bastards" rob the rich of the city of Camorr, based on late medieval Venice but on an unnamed world. Two stories interweave: in the present, the Gentleman Bastards fight a mysterious Gray King taking over the criminal underworld; alternate chapters describe the history of Camorr and the Gentleman Bastards, in particular protagonist Locke Lamora