There are books that have voice and then there is Kinch Na Shannack, the narrator in Christopher Buehlman’s The Blacktongue Thief. Kinch has a lot of voice—you can easily picture him in a tavern somewhere relaying his tale to a group of pleasantly soused patrons. What does his tale entail? Kinch, a blacktongued thief indebted to the Taker’s Guild, starts his story when he and a group of fellow thieves try to rob the wrong Ispanthian warrior. The story moves on from there, with the Guild strongly encouraging Kinch to travel with the same warrior as she goes off to Oustrim, a good eight-week journey away by land.