Best Served Cold
Chapters - Joe Abercrombie
Chapter 1: Benna Murcatto Saves a Life
Monza and Benna ride to Duke Orso's mountain fortress at Fontezarmo to report their latest victory - Borletta has fallen and Cantain is dead. The siblings banter about the future whilst meeting Foscar, Ganmark and Carpi along the way. After Monza delivers her triumphant report and discusses plans to take Visserine, Orso turns on them - revealing he fears Monza has grown too popular. Gobba garrotes her while Ario stabs Benna, and Ganmark finishes him off. Despite a desperate struggle in which Carpi stabs her, Monza is hurled from the terrace. She survives the fall only because she lands on Benna's body, wedged against a tree, and lies broken among the kitchen refuse.
POV: Monzcarro Murcatto·On page: Benna Murcatto, Duke Orso, Prince Foscar, General Ganmark, Faithful Carpi, Gobba, Prince Ario
Part 1: I - Talins
Monza Murcatto is thrown from a window and left for dead by the man she served. She survives through luck and spite. The list of seven names she will kill is assembled before she is fully healed.
Chapter 2: Land of Opportunity
Shivers arrives by boat in Talins, hoping to leave behind a life of war in the North and become a better man. He finds the city cold, hostile and nothing like the paradise described to him by a merchant named Vossula. Hungry, broke and disappointed, he struggles to control his violent temper - nearly throttling a stranger on a bridge simply for brushing his arm. He begins to realise that being a better man might be harder than he thought.
POV: Caul Shivers
Chapter 3: The Bone-Thief
Monza wakes in a bone-covered room, tended by an unnamed healer who found her body at the foot of the mountain. She has been unconscious for twelve weeks and her injuries are horrific - shattered ribs, broken legs, a ruined right hand, and coins replacing fragments of her skull. Over weeks of agonising recovery, she forces herself to walk, then escapes into the night. She returns to her childhood farm, digs up a hidden cellar stocked with weapons and Benna's gold, and vows to kill all seven men responsible for her brother's murder - Gobba, Carpi, Ganmark, Ario, Foscar, and Orso.
POV: Monzcarro Murcatto·Mentioned: Benna Murcatto, Gobba, Faithful Carpi, General Ganmark, Prince Ario, Prince Foscar, Duke Orso, Nicomo Cosca
Chapter 4: Fish out of Water
Shivers, now destitute after ten weeks in Talins, is rejected from fishing work and attacked by four muggers in an alley. A hooded woman - Monza - saves him by slitting one man's knee. She buys him a meal and hires him to fetch a man called Sajaam from a smoke-house. Shivers enters the den, delivers the message from 'Nicomo', and brings Sajaam to meet Monza. Sajaam recognises her as Murcatto, thought dead, and reluctantly provides Friendly - a convict from Safety - to work for her. When Monza reveals her brother was murdered and offers fifty scales, Shivers agrees to help kill a man.
POV: Caul Shivers·On page: Monzcarro Murcatto, Friendly·Mentioned: Duke Orso, Benna Murcatto, Duke Rogont
Chapter 5: Six and One
Friendly rolls dice and reflects on his life of crime, prisons and numbers. He and Shivers ambush Gobba and his companions on a dark street in Talins. Friendly dispatches Gobba's two bodyguards with brutal efficiency - a cleaver to one skull and five stab wounds plus a cut throat for the other - whilst Shivers clubs Gobba unconscious from behind. The first target on Monza's list is captured alive.
POV: Friendly·On page: Caul Shivers, Gobba·Mentioned: Monzcarro Murcatto
Chapter 6: Bloody Instructions
Monza takes her revenge on Gobba, chaining him to an anvil in an abandoned forge and smashing his hands with a hammer - repaying the injury he dealt to hers. Friendly garrotes him with a wire while Monza finishes him with the hammer. Afterwards, she finds the killing brought less satisfaction than she hoped. She persuades Shivers to stay on for the remaining six kills, offering five thousand scales - though she was prepared to stab him had he refused. The price settles at that sum, and Orso's banker is named as the next target.
POV: Monzcarro Murcatto·On page: Gobba, Friendly, Caul Shivers
Part 2: II - Westport
Chapter 7: Poison
Morveer distils the King of Poisons with his apprentice Day at his country estate. When Monza and Shivers arrive to hire him, Morveer demonstrates his skills by paralysing them both through a spider-venom handshake. With his captive audience, he lectures on the folly of killing Orso - then, seduced by the prospect of shaping history, agrees to the job. His fee: ten thousand scales per secondary target and fifty thousand for Orso. After administering the antidote, he pledges himself to the task whilst privately resolving never to trust the Serpent of Talins.
POV: Castor Morveer·On page: Day, Monzcarro Murcatto, Caul Shivers·Mentioned: Duke Orso
Chapter 8: Science and Magic
The group travels to Westport to kill Mauthis, the banker of Valint and Balk. Shivers endures Morveer and Day's mockery of his belief in magic, and attempts to befriend Friendly, learning he was a convict in Safety. Monza shows Shivers the sights of the city - its temples, holy men and slaves - and they share a rare moment of connection before arriving at their crumbling base, overlooking the fortress-like bank. Morveer reveals his plan to infiltrate disguised as a merchant, whilst Shivers and Monza must wait behind.
POV: Caul Shivers·On page: Castor Morveer, Day, Friendly, Monzcarro Murcatto
Chapter 9: The Safest Place in the World
Morveer infiltrates the Westport branch of Valint and Balk, posing as a merchant with Friendly as his bodyguard and Day as his niece. He catches a glimpse of a man called Sulfur, who seems to hold authority over Mauthis. Every attempt to poison the banker - ring, handkerchief, wine, pen - is foiled by Mauthis's extreme caution. However, Morveer gains crucial intelligence: the layout, the security, the night-guard routine, and most importantly, the great glass ceiling. The deposit is made, and Morveer leaves with his plan taking shape.
POV: Castor Morveer·On page: Friendly, Day, Yoru Sulfur
Chapter 10: Evil Friends
Monza takes Shivers to a barber in Westport to transform him from a ragged Northman into something approaching a Styrian gentleman. While his hair is cut, they debate whether being a good man has any value - Monza cynically dismisses it, Shivers stubbornly clings to the idea. Back at their crumbling hideout, Morveer reports that Mauthis is too cautious and well-protected for a daytime attempt, and that the bank's defences - armoured carriages, walled islands, round-the-clock patrols - make every approach nearly impossible. The group must find a way in at night.
POV: Monzcarro Murcatto·On page: Caul Shivers, Castor Morveer, Day, Friendly
Chapter 11: Two Twos
Friendly rolls dice on the rooftop opposite the bank and observes the group forming pairs - Morveer with Day, Monza with Shivers - whilst he remains alone. They surveil the bank's night patrols, counting roughly three hundred seconds between passes. Morveer declares there is not enough time to scale the walls and get through the glass roof, and the spikes and smooth stone make climbing impossible. Shivers, grinning in the dark, volunteers to do it - saying he will use 'magic'.
POV: Friendly·On page: Castor Morveer, Day, Monzcarro Murcatto, Caul Shivers
Chapter 12: Plans and Accidents
Shivers climbs the bank's pillar using a rope-loop trick his brother taught him, narrowly avoiding a returning patrol when Monza distracts the guards by pretending to be a lost woman. From the roof he shoots a blunt bolt trailing wire across to Friendly, and they rig a silk cord between the buildings. Morveer and Day cross over, cut through the glass ceiling, dart the night-guard unconscious, and poison every ledger in Mauthis's office. On the return crossing, Morveer's trouser-leg catches on a spike, he accidentally nicks himself with his own poisoned scalpel, and the rope's acid burns through early - sending him swinging through the shutters of the room where Monza and Shivers are in bed together.
POV: Caul Shivers·On page: Monzcarro Murcatto, Friendly, Castor Morveer, Day
Chapter 13: Repaid in Full
Monza coldly tosses five scales at Shivers for the previous night, calling it fair payment. While practising swordplay with her left hand, she discovers that Morveer's poison has not yet taken effect. They go to the bank, where Monza comes face-to-face with Mauthis just as the poison begins to work - he collapses in convulsions, pink foam frothing from his mouth. Dozens of clerks die as well, since Morveer poisoned every ledger in the building. The banking hall erupts into panicked chaos. Afterwards, Monza confronts Morveer for the mass killing, but he deflects blame. Shivers threatens to quit; Monza manipulates him into staying by raising his pay to eight thousand scales.
POV: Monzcarro Murcatto·On page: Caul Shivers, Castor Morveer, Day·Mentioned: Friendly
Part 3: III - Sipani
Chapter 14: Fogs and Whispers
Shivers and Monza navigate the fog-shrouded canals of Sipani to meet Vitari, a sharp, freckled woman with children and useful connections. Vitari reveals that the King of the Union is coming to Sipani for a peace conference between Orso and the League of Eight. Crucially, Ario and Foscar will both attend. The conference itself will be too heavily guarded, but Vitari knows someone close to Ario who might provide another way in. She agrees to help - for a price, knowing it will cost her life in Sipani.
POV: Caul Shivers·On page: Monzcarro Murcatto, Practical Vitari·Mentioned: Prince Ario, Prince Foscar, Duke Orso, Duke Rogont
Chapter 15: The Arts of Persuasion
Monza's crew kidnap Carlot dan Eider, Ario's mistress, off the streets of Sipani. Vitari beats her whilst Monza threatens her with the Calvez, drawing blood from her throat. Day injects her with a slow-acting poison - she has a week before she needs the antidote. Eider reveals that Ario has hired Cardotti's House of Leisure for a private celebration on Foscar's birthday, and is coerced into letting Monza's people infiltrate the event. Shivers and Friendly handle the muscle. Day privately hints to Monza that Morveer is growing careless and old.
POV: Monzcarro Murcatto·On page: Carlot dan Eider, Practical Vitari, Day, Caul Shivers, Friendly·Mentioned: Castor Morveer, Prince Ario, Prince Foscar
Chapter 16: The Life of the Drinker
Cosca, the once-famed captain general of the Thousand Swords, is found by Vitari begging for drink in a Sipani gutter - penniless, trembling and barely able to stand. Monza emerges from the fog. Though Cosca once swore to kill her for stealing his command, he feels only shame at how far he has fallen. She offers him a job - fighting against Duke Orso - and he accepts without hesitation, desperate for money and purpose. Friendly helps the old drunkard to his feet, and Cosca totters off with his strange new companions into the Sipani night.
POV: Nicomo Cosca·On page: Practical Vitari, Monzcarro Murcatto, Friendly·Mentioned: Duke Orso
Chapter 17: Left Out
Friendly prepares food while Vitari briefs the group on the layout of Cardotti's House of Leisure, where Ario and Foscar will be attending a private revel. The plan calls for twenty hired fighters disguised as entertainers to keep control while Monza and Vitari kill the brothers upstairs. Tensions simmer between Cosca, who is struggling with sobriety, and Morveer, whose poisoner's humour falls flat with the group.
POV: Friendly·On page: Practical Vitari, Monzcarro Murcatto, Caul Shivers, Nicomo Cosca, Castor Morveer, Day·Mentioned: Prince Ario, Prince Foscar, Carlot dan Eider, Benna Murcatto, Faithful Carpi, Victus