Darker, bloodier and even more entertaining than Abercrombie’s First Law trilogy, Best Served Cold is the ultimate revenge story packed with pain, fury and absurdity from its spectacular opening sequence to its final poignant pages.

The premise of Best Served Cold is simple: heroine is betrayed – heroine gets back up again – heroine sets out to get revenge. And at first it really is that simple. Monza Murcatto, the infamous Butcher of Caprile, sets her sights on seven enemies and vows to do anything she needs to in order to see them all dead. Recruiting a merry band of thugs – including a poisoner, a Northman and a torturer – she embarks on her glorious mission. But perhaps revenge isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. Perhaps the people she trusts are the ones holding the knives . . . and perhaps Monza herself isn’t quite everything she appears to be.

The tale is, of course, set in the world of First Law (though several years after the events of the original trilogy). Here we are introduced to the ‘exotic’ land of Styria: a fractured continent hosting a decades-long civil war at a time commonly referred to as the Years of Blood. Although Best Served Cold is technically classed as a standalone, the sheer amount of references to the original trilogy – not to mention cameo appearances from several characters – means that those already familiar with the events of First Law will likely enjoy it considerably more than those new to Abercrombie’s world.

Best Served Cold is Abercrombie’s absurd and bloody take on the standard revenge trope: absurd because of its eclectic mix of characters, and bloody because of the chaos they cause. But it’s also an insanely fun and entertaining journey, with the plot taking something of a backseat to colourful characters who gradually reveal themselves to be so much more than the exaggerated caricatures they first appear to be.

The world they live in is equally colourful, with vicious politics and treacherous leaders dangerously influencing critical events. The settings in particular are fantastically vivid and immersive: even now I can clearly visualise every bloody sunset, picture every pane of glass in the roof of the Banking House of Valint and Balk, startle at the canal boats looming out of the fog in gloomy Sipani and wonder at the majesty of impregnable Fontezarmo. Though Styria is certainly not a place anyone in their right mind would choose to live, I found I could picture its various regions just as vividly as if I’d actually been there.

Although often dark and suffused with bleakness, Best Served Cold is also really, really bloody funny (particularly during Nicomo Cosca and Castor Morveer’s PoV chapters). Ironic observations, humorous dialogue, self-deprecating comments and hilariously inappropriate remarks are particular specialties of Abercrombie’s, and Best Served Cold abounds with all of them. Abercrombie cleverly blends brutality and gore with laughter and levity to create a perfectly dark, gritty tale of revenge and ruin. This is Abercrombie at his absolute best.