But she did not refrain from that practice out of softheartedness. When Pheris was born disabled (he has a weak leg, two twisted fingers, and is mute), his mother did not expose her child to the elements, as is commonly done with disabled children in Attolia. Pheris’s mother, daughter to the baron, has been feuding with her father for years. Gen (as Eugenides is sometimes called) decreed that Erondites’s next heir, a grandson, be sent to him so that he could be raised (and presumably molded) to be loyal to the crown. Their father, Baron Erondites, was a powerful, a dangerous thorn in the side of the monarchy. Sejanus was promptly locked up and his older brother, the heir, exiled for another reason. Late in book three ( The King of Attolia) the person behind the attempt on Eugenides’ life was revealed to be Sejanus, second son of Baron Erondites. Eugenides, the king, began his rule as King of Attolia but is now high king over Eddis and Sounis as well.
Pheris’s story begins with the high king’s order that the new heir to the Erondites barony be conveyed to the capital and the palace. Those few sections are written in third person, the rest in first person. He was not present for every scene, however, and where he wasn’t, he describes the events he’s heard about. Return of the Thief is actually split into two books, the first and second “Books of Pheris.” Pheris, we discover, is our first-person narrator, a witness to some of the most pivotal moments in the history of the Little Peninsula (a Greece-like region comprised of three small countries, Attolia, Eddis and Sounis) and he says in his forward that he is writing the book to provide an accurate as possible account of events. Also, I just can’t stop babbling about it. Readers, forgive the length of our discussion there is a lot going on in this book. Jennie and I have loved earlier books in the series, so we decided to review it together. Return of the Thief, the sixth and final book, had a lot of expectations to live up to. Janine: It’s been a long wait for the conclusion to this series the first book was published twenty-four years ago. If you’d like to try the books, start with the first one, The Thief. Seriously, don’t even read the blurbs for the later books. READERS PLEASE NOTE: The following review contains MASSIVE spoilers for the earlier five books in Megan Whalen Turner’s Thief series and this is one series where spoilers should be avoided at all costs. Child abuse, ableism (on the part of the villains), miscarriage.
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