From Deas‘ website:
When Berren makes the mistake of stealing a purse from a thief-taker, it should have condemned him to a short and brutal life in the slave-mines. So when the thief-taker offers to train him as an apprentice instead, he can’t believe his luck. The thief-taker has secrets of his own, though, and Berren is soon sucked into a faraway war, filled with mercenary soldiers, necromancers who brew potions that can change your destiny, and a psychotic girl-princess with a penchant for cutting pieces out of her lovers’ souls.
Jokes about hooded figures aside (there’s two this time, talk about innovation!), I like this artwork from Paul Young. Particularly, I enjoy how he uses the bright colours of the doorway to create contrast with the rest of the image and give the illusion of the thieves being hidden in the shadows without losing too much detail. The fellow on the left looks a little stiff, though. I do like the general layout of the text. The Thief Taker’s Apprentice is a sharp title.
As for the book itself, I’ve not read any of Deas’ other work, but it sounds interesting, if a bit similar to Brent Weeks’ Night Angel Trilogy. Still, you can hardly go wrong with Assassin’s and insane princesses.
