Books Like The Lies of Locke Lamora
Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards series delivers heist fantasy at its finest — elaborate cons, a found family of criminals, devastating banter, and Locke's particular genius for getting in over his head. These books share the same DNA: clever protagonists working outside the law, intricate plots that reward attention, morally grey ensemble casts, and worlds where the con is always the point.
- 1
Six of Crows
by Leigh Bardugo
A criminal prodigy assembles a crew of six dangerous outcasts to pull off a heist that no one has ever survived — breaking into the most fortified prison in the world. Bardugo writes crew dynamics and elaborate planning with the same love for found family and moral complexity that makes the Gentleman Bastards irresistible.
- 2
Mistborn: The Final Empire
by Brandon Sanderson
In an ash-covered world ruled by a seemingly immortal tyrant, a crew of thieves and Mistborn plan an audacious heist against the Lord Ruler himself. Sanderson delivers the same impossible-plan energy as Locke Lamora, with one of fantasy's most elegant magic systems underneath.
- 3
The Way of Shadows
by Brent Weeks
Azoth, a street rat in a city run by guilds and assassins, apprentices himself to the most feared killer in the world and discovers that the price of skill is everything he thought he wanted to protect. Weeks writes the criminal underworld with the same grit and dark wit that makes Locke's Camorr feel lived-in.
- 4
Best Served Cold
by Joe Abercrombie
A mercenary general betrayed and left for dead assembles a crew of killers, thieves, and broken people to work her way through a list of seven names. Abercrombie's standalone has the same morally grey ensemble structure as Locke Lamora — a revenge-heist with a found family you should not trust.
- 5
Red Seas Under Red Skies
by Scott Lynch
Locke and Jean flee to the city of Tal Verrar and target the Sinspire, the world's most exclusive gambling house — only to be conscripted into a naval campaign they cannot escape. The direct sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora: same duo, higher stakes, a ship.
- 6
The Name of the Wind
by Patrick Rothfuss
Kvothe, the most famous — and most wanted — man of his age, spent years surviving on the streets of Tarbean before talking his way into the University. Rothfuss's narrative shares Locke's core structure: an impossibly clever protagonist getting in and out of situations that should have killed him.
- 7
Prince of Thorns
by Mark Lawrence
A thirteen-year-old prince leads a band of hardened criminals across a broken post-apocalyptic world on a path of calculated revenge. Lawrence writes the darkest end of the morally grey spectrum — Jorg of Ancrath is a protagonist you cannot look away from.
- 8
The Blade Itself
by Joe Abercrombie
Three protagonists — a crippled torturer, a disgraced barbarian, and an arrogant nobleman — are dragged into a crisis none of them signed up for. The First Law trilogy is grimdark at its most morally intelligent, with the same dark wit and subverted expectations as Locke Lamora.
- 9
Kings of the Wyld
by Nicholas Eames
A retired mercenary band reunites for one last impossible quest through a continent-wide war zone to rescue a bandmate's daughter. Eames plays the found-family-of-criminals trope for everything it's worth, with the kind of banter and impossible odds that make Locke's crew feel like home.