To an experienced thief like Krunzle the Quick, the merchant nation of Druma is full of treasures just waiting to be liberated. Yet when the fast-talking scoundrel gets caught stealing from one of the most powerful prophets of Kalistrade, the only option is to undertake a dangerous mission to recover the merchant lord's runaway daughter—and the magical artifact she took with her. Armed with an arsenal of decidedly unhelpful magical items and chaperoned by an intelligent snake necklace happy to choke him into submission, Krunzle must venture far from the cities of the merchant utopia and into a series of adventures that will make him a rich man—or a corpse!

Matthew Hughes is a Canadian author who writes science fiction under the name Matthew Hughes, crime fiction as Matt Hughes and media tie-ins as Hugh Matthews. Prior to his work in fiction, he was a freelance speechwriter.

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JONATHAN DAVIS is the founder and chairman of Independent Investor, a specialist financial publishing venture, and a well-known columnist and investment writer. A former business and financial journalist on The Times of London, The Economist, and The Independent, he is a regular columnist for the Financial Times, author of three other books on investment, and a director of three investment companies.

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