Crooked Kingdom sequel to Six of Crows begins right where the author, Leigh Bardugo, left us.   Every character continues to fight with inner demons. Kaz is mysterious as ever but struggles with his feelings for Inej and feelings of revenge for his brother. Parem has altered Nina’s Grisha powers.  Matthias struggles to put his warrior past behind him so he can be there for Nina as she fights parem cravings. Inej still dreams of freedom.   Jesper and Wylan deal with family concerns. But the Dregs are back in Kerch ready to put another grand scheme into play.  Kaz’s masterful con that takes the reader on a wild ride.

While Clary Frey and her best buddy, Simon, are enjoying the music scene at the Pandemonium Club in New York City, Clary points out a suspicious trio to Simon, but Simon doesn’t see them.  One of the boys in the group is carrying a long-handled knife.  Clary watches as the trio sneaks into the storage room, and fearing that they are up to no good, she follows while Simon finds the bouncer.  In the storage room, Clary witnesses a murder and is introduced a world of Shadowhunters and demons. Things in Clary’s life are becoming odder.  Jace, one of the Shadowhunters, turns up the next evening at another club where Simon and Clary are watching a friend’s poetry slam. Jace shares a little more of his world with Clary. During this meeting with Jace, Clary receives an urgent phone call from her mom telling her not to come home, to go to Simon’s,  and to tell Luke that “he’s found me”.  Clary hears strange noises in the background, and then the phone goes dead.  She rushes home to find her mother missing, the apartment ransacked, and a demon lying in wait. Crouched against the floor, a ravener hisses, “Girl. Flesh. Blood. To eat, oh, to eat.”  Clary is in a fight for her life against this demon!