Bardugo, Leigh. Crooked Kingdom (series Six of Crows #2).

Bardugo, Leigh.  Crooked Kingdom (series Six of Crows #2). Macmillan/Henry Holt     2016  546p  $18.99  ISBN 978-1-62779-213-4  Hardback  hs/adult     Adventure  VG-BN

Fans of Six of Crows will be lined up for its sequel, Crooked Kingdom. Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives.      Bardugo picks up the threads of the first novel and it is just under a week since the Dregs reached Ketterdam (about a month since they left Djerholm). The stakes for the band of thieves keep increasing. They are fighting to snatch Inej from Van Eck before he has his way with her, and they are almost out of time. They devise a clever plan to destroy Van Eck’s sugar crop, using Wylan’s weevil, and to destroy his reputation at the same time.

The action and tension is non-stop. Convoluted plots-within-plots with unexpected twists and turns will keep readers on the edge of their seats. Readers will invest in these well-drawn characters and tear through the pages to see who survives and who does not. The ending is unpredictable and shocking. Darkly compelling, this novel will make readers demand another volume for the series in order to provide closure after the surprise ending.             

Summary: In this sequel to Six of Crows, Kaz Brekker and his crew have just pulled off a heist so daring even they didn't think they'd survive. But instead of divvying up a fat reward, they're right back to fighting for their lives.

Outlaws-Fiction, Adventure-Fiction                          —Hilary Welliver

Bowman, Erin. Vengeance Road.

Bowman, Erin.  Vengeance Road.  Houghton Mifflin/Harcourt Brace  2015  327p   $17.99  ISBN 978-0-544-46638-8  ms/jr      Historical fiction      VG-BN

Kate and her father lived in Granite Creek on a right fine piece of land. Times were harsh, but the two were managing to make an honest living.  One day, while Kate was getting water, her father was shot by a gang of outlaws.  She managed to get off a couple of shots with her rifle and injured one of the men.  After she has buried her father, she takes off after the outlaws to wreak her revenge.

It is a dangerous journey, during which she learns that her father had been a member of the gang.  When he left the gang and changed his name, he took a journal containing a map with the directions to a gold mine, and the other gang members who killed him were after that map.  In seeking revenge for her father’s murder, Kate is assisted in her journey by two brothers who are sons of her father’s good friend.  Readers see gold fever taking hold when Jess and Will sidetrack their cattle trip to Tucson in order to follow the trail to the gold mine.  Kate’s compassion is evident when she saves a young Apache girl from burning in a barroom brawl.  This act of kindness is later paid back in full when the girl safely leads Kate and the boys through Indian territory near Superstition Mountain.

Readers will be sitting on the edge of their seats.  As Kate fights off bad men and severe natural conditions, she also has to depend on her own sense of morality when she is faced with the end of the journey.
     

Summary: Kate Thompson sets out to avenge her father’s death at the hands of the Waylan Rose Rider Gang.  Her journey is filled with conflict, desperation, and the friendship of an Apache girl and two brothers who refuse to desert her.     

Robbers and Outlaws-Fiction, Wild West-Fiction, Gold mining-Fiction

                                                      --Linda McNeil