Five novels where criminals save the day

Alexandra Christo decided to write books when she was four and her teacher told her she couldn’t be a fairy. When she’s not busy making up stories, she can be found organizing food crawls over London and binge-watching Korean dramas. Christo has a BA in Creative Writing and currently lives in England with an abundance of cacti (because they’re the only plants she can keep alive). She is the author of To Kill a Kingdom and Into the Crooked Place.

At Tor.com Christo tagged five books where criminals save the day, including:

A Darker Shade of Magic by V.E. Schwab

“I’d rather die on an adventure than live standing still.”

Lila lives in the real world, where she has to steal to survive. And Kell lives in a world of parallel Londons, where he is one of the last magic-wielders who can travel between them. Lila is a thief. Kell is a smuggler. And when the Londons start falling apart, they have to work together to stop the threads of magic from unravelling.

Now, I have a soft spot for Kell BUT… oh, Lila. The queen of thieves and snarky pirates.

Lila makes her living as a pick pocket in book one of this magical series (what? That’s a good pun!), and then she’s thrust into a world of different Londons and a boy with a strange, ever-changing coat, and a battle for magic and the safety of the world. And she takes it in her stride.

Lila longs for adventure, thirsts for the magic, and though she’s used to looking out for number one, when the world’s on the line, Lila has her knives at the ready.

Read about another entry on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue