The Republic of Thieves

In the beginning of The Republic of Thieves, the third book in the Gentleman Bastard Sequence, Locke Lamora lies near death from the poison administered to him in the previous book. The chance for a cure comes in the form of the bondsmage, Patience, who wants to hire Locke and his trusty friend Jean to fix an ordinary human election in Karthain, the city where the bondsmagi live. For that she is willing to remove the poison from Locke's body as well as give a sizeable monetary reward if Locke succeeds in his task.

To complicate the matters, the opposing faction of bondsmagi has hired Sabetha, Locke's former partner in crime and enduring true love who is Locke's equal in Xanatos Speed Chess. A truly dirty election season follows in which both of the two political parties in Karthain engaging in horrendously corrupt and entertaining tactics under the criminal guidance of Locke and Sabetha, all to win the rulership of a city that, unknown to the ordinary residents, is in truth ruled from shadows by the mind-controlling bondsmagi themselves. When the end comes, the results surprise almost everyone.


 * All Elections Are Serious Business: The Konseil elections in Karthain are extremely serious business, in large part because the people getting elected think that they will have actual power.
 * Belligerent Sexual Tension: Between Locke and Sabetha.
 * Blood on the Debate Floor: In a climactic moment of political unrespectability, the Konseil members get into fisticuffs with each other and the police.
 * Conspicuous Consumption: Locke and Sabetha's election budgets are so huge that they can easily afford themselves luxuries. Sabetha was even ordered to spend every single crown, and so she appears at the election party in an extremely fancy gown she bought with the money left over. The gown is an election expense because the embroidery will make the gown hopelessly outdated the very next day.
 * Corrupt Politician: Locke and Sabetha do their best to spread corruption around, but Lovaris in particular counts.
 * Cruel and Unusual Death:
 * Dating Catwoman: As far as Patience is concerned, the reigniting romance between Locke and Sabetha skirts dangerously close to this trope.
 * Drugged Lipstick: Worn by Sabetha. It works great.
 * Every Man Has His Price: Locke and Sabetha bribe a good portion of Karthain's civil servants as well as other suitably placed people to cause trouble to the opposing party.
 * Feed the Mole: How Locke reacts when he learns that someone within his inner circle has been passing on secrets to Sabetha.
 * Fictional Political Party: Kartain has the Deep Roots Party and the Black Iris Party. They have no known policy differences even on a rhetorical level, and after the election the bondsmagi always quietly mind-control the successfully elected politicians anyway.
 * Fiery Redhead: Sabetha.
 * Flashback: Between every chapter in the present there is a long flashback about Locke's past with Sabetha. Most of that forms a unified narrative in which Locke, Sabetha, and their friends join an acting troupe that is going to perform a classic play called The Republic of Thieves.
 * Gambit Pileup: The natural result of Locke and Sabetha playing against each other for an extended period of time.
 * Heroes Want Redheads: Locke fell in love with Sabetha the moment he saw her red hair. Sabetha is insecure about whether he really loves her or just the hair.
 * I Know Your True Name: The bondsmagi can mind-control anyone whose true name they know. They don't know Locke's.
 * The people of Karthain have the custom of hiding their given names. However, the bondsmagi can go far with just a partial true name, which a surname counts as.
 * A bondsmage knowing the name of another bondsmage is particularly serious business.
 * Jerkass: Patience. Even to her own son.
 * Karmic Death: Without Locke's involvement, in the end
 * Laser-Guided Amnesia: Routinely applied by the bondsmagi.
 * The Magocracy: The true political situation in Karthain.
 * Obstructive Bureaucrat: Locke and Sabetha bribe various bureaucrats to cause trouble to the opposing party.
 * Ravens and Crows:
 * Reveal: No one could have guessed that Locke was in truth This will presumably become important in a later book.
 * Screw the Rules, I Have Money: Locke and Sabetha's chosen tactic for winning the election.
 * Sleazy Politician: What Locke and Sabetha strive to expose and/or frame every opposing side politician as.
 * Star-Crossed Lovers: Aurin, the son of the emperor, and Amadine, the queen of thieves, in the titular play.
 * Tsundere: Sabetha.
 * Xanatos Speed Chess: Locke and Sabetha play it against each other in their election schemes.
 * Your Favorite: On one of their dates, Locke temporarily adapts the role of a Cordon Bleugh Chef and makes Sabetha a soup with all her favorite ingredients.