Best Served Cold

Springtime in Styria. And that means war.

There have been nineteen years of blood. The ruthless Grand Duke Orso is locked in a vicious struggle with the squabbling League of Eight, and between them they have bled the land white. While armies march, heads roll and cities burn, and behind the scenes bankers, priests and older, darker powers play a deadly game to choose who will be king.

War may be hell but for Monza Murcatto, the Snake of Talins, the most feared and famous mercenary in Duke Orso's employ, it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed, thrown down a mountain and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance. Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

Her allies include Styria's least reliable drunkard, Styria's most treacherous poisoner, a mass-murderer obsessed with numbers and a Northman who just wants to do the right thing. Her enemies number the better half of the nation. And that's all before the most dangerous man in the world is dispatched to hunt her down and finish the job Duke Orso started...

Springtime in Styria. And that means revenge.

"The battles are vivid and visceral, the action brutal, the pace headlong, and Abercrombie piles the betrayals, reversals, and plot twists one atop another to keep us guessing how it will all come out. This is his best book yet." --- George R.R. Martin

"Joe Abercrombie takes the grand tradition of high fantasy literature and drags it down into the gutter, in the best possible way. Monza is a beautiful mercenary who has sworn to kill the seven men who tried to kill her. No elves, no wands - just lots of down-and-dirty swordplay." --- Time

"Abercrombie is both fiendishly inventive and solidly convincing, especially when sprinkling his appallingly vivid combat scenes with humor so dark that it's almost ultraviolet." --- Publishers Weekly

After Grand Duke Orso decides to dispose of sister-and-brother mercenaries Monzcarro and Benna Mercatto, Monzcarro narrowly avoids her doom, and forges a gruesome plan of revenge. "Best Served Cold" is Abercrombie's new standalone novel set in the world of his First Law Trilogy.

War may be hell, but for Monza Murcatto, a solider of considerable fortune; it's a damn good way of making money too. Her victories have made her popular - a shade too popular for her employer's taste. Betrayed and left for dead, Murcatto's reward is a broken body and a burning hunger for vengeance.

Whatever the cost, seven men must die.

"Joe Abercrombie takes the grand tradition of high fantasy literature and drags it down into the gutter, in the best possible way." --- Time

"Abercrombie is both fiendishly inventive and solidly convincing, especially when sprinkling his appallingly vivid combat scenes with humor so dark that it's almost ultraviolet." --- Publishers Weekly

"A satisfyingly brutal fantasy quest. BEST SERVED COLD? Modern fantasy doesn't get much hotter than this." --- Dave Bradley, SFX

"Abercrombie has written the finest epic fantasy trilogy in recent memory. He's one writer that no one should miss." --- Junot Diaz on The First Law Trilogy

Joe Abercrombie is the Sunday Times bestselling author of Best Served Cold and the First Law trilogy: The Blade Itself, Before They Are Hanged,and Last Argument of Kings. He is a full time writer, and occasional freelance film editor, who lives in Bath, England with his wife and daughters. Find out more about Joe Abercrombie atwww.joeabercrombie.com.