Crooked Kingdom recap

Betrayed and cheated by the merchant Jan Van Eck, who holds Inej hostage, Kaz Brekker and his crew go to war against him in the crooked city of Ketterdam. Through a chain of elaborate cons they rescue Inej and set out to ruin Van Eck utterly, while contending with rival gangs, the drug jurda parem, and Kaz's oldest enemy, the crime boss Pekka Rollins, who years ago destroyed Kaz's brother and made him what he is. Kaz outmaneuvers both men: he engineers Van Eck's public disgrace, financial collapse, and arrest, forcing Wylan to be restored as heir to the Van Eck fortune, and he breaks Pekka Rollins by taking everything from him. The victory carries a terrible cost. Matthias is killed near the end, dying in Nina's arms, and she carries his body home to Fjerda to pursue the change he dreamed of. Kuwei is smuggled to safety, Jesper reconciles with his father and embraces who he is, Wylan and Jesper are together, and Kaz gives Inej the means to sail as a hunter of slavers, the two parting with a fragile, deepening bond and Kaz rising as a power in the Barrel.

Previously, in Six of Crows: in the criminal port city of Ketterdam, the young schemer Kaz Brekker was offered a vast fortune by the merchant Jan Van Eck to break into the Ice Court, the impregnable fortress of Fjerda, and free Kuwei Yul-Bo, whose late father invented jurda parem, a drug that turns Grisha into enslaved, unstoppable weapons. Kaz assembled a crew of six: his spy Inej, the sharpshooter Jesper, the Grisha Nina, the Fjerdan witch-hunter Matthias, and Van Eck's runaway son Wylan. Against enormous odds and through constant improvisation, sacrifice, and shifting loyalties, including Nina taking parem to save the others, they broke into and out of the Ice Court and got Kuwei out of Fjerda alive. But when they returned to Ketterdam to collect their pay, Van Eck betrayed them: he refused the money, sprang a trap, and seized Inej as a hostage. The crew was left with nothing but their survival and one another, and Kaz swore to recover Inej, claim what they were owed, and make Van Eck pay.

In the wake of Van Eck's betrayal, Kaz and his crew are scattered, short of money, and hunted, with Inej held prisoner by the merchant and rival powers circling. Van Eck wants Kuwei and the fortune the boy represents, and he expects to force an exchange on his own terms. Kaz refuses to play the losing hand he has been dealt and begins spinning a counter-scheme aimed at freeing Inej and turning the tables on Van Eck entirely. The crew must operate in the open city where enemies old and new, including powerful gangs and the ever-present threat of jurda parem, make every move dangerous. Regrouping, gathering resources, and setting the first pieces of Kaz's plan in motion, they commit to the fight to get Inej back and bring the merchant who wronged them down.

Kaz and his crew rescue Inej from Van Eck and then dismantle the merchant completely. Through a series of cons, Kaz exposes Van Eck's crimes, engineers his financial ruin and arrest, and forces him to reinstate his cast-off son Wylan as his legitimate heir, so Wylan inherits the Van Eck fortune. Kaz also destroys his oldest enemy, the crime boss Pekka Rollins, who years earlier swindled and doomed Kaz's brother Jordie and set Kaz on the path to becoming Dirtyhands; Kaz strips Pekka of his wealth and power and breaks him, though he spares Pekka's young son. The triumph is shadowed by loss: Matthias is shot and killed while shielding others, dying in Nina's arms, and Nina, her Grisha power permanently altered by parem, takes his body home to Fjerda to carry on his dream of ending its persecution of the Grisha. Kuwei is spirited safely out of Ketterdam into protective hands to continue his father's work. Jesper reconciles with his father Colm and accepts his own Grisha gift, and he and Wylan are together. Kaz arranges for Inej to have a ship of her own to hunt slavers on the seas and helps reunite her with her family, and the two, still guarded, reach a tentative closeness. Kaz emerges from it all as a rising force in the Barrel.