Sequels are treacherous things. Can the author bottle lightening for a second time? Do the characters and the settings have the depth to stretch? Was the book not actually as good as you remembered anyway.

In this case though I was pleasantly surprised. Red Seas Under Red Skies is every bit as enjoyable as its predecessor The Lies of Locke Lamora.

The core format of the story remains the same. It is shamelessly inspired by classic caper movies. The central characters jump through multiple identities and plot ever more complex double, triple and quadruple crosses. This is exactly the sort of thing that made the first book so enjoyable.

But Lynch seems to be attempting both to explore more of his detailed fantasy world and to grow his characters. I'm always happy to read more about the settings and history of these books. They are wonderfully rich and convincing. The character growth met with mixed success.

While Locke and Jean's religious training was just touched on in the first book, suddenly it becomes a central element of their moral compass. The swing is just a little bit too abrupt for comfort. Particularly early in the story before enough events have occurred to really justify it.

At first I thought the pirate elements of the story were a similarly odd story branch, but looking back the turn out to be crucial to getting the level of emotional attachment required for the punishment that they finally dish out. And more importantly perhaps those elements are highly entertaining in their own right.

I wouldn't want to be a character in this series though. The death toll is high and the living tend to suffer even more than the dead.