The Liar's Key (The Red Queen's War, #2)

by Mark Lawrence

In the midst of such institutionalized theft on so grand a scale individual thievery could not be tolerated in any degree. Only by strict adherence to the rules of the theft could the illusion of it being lawful and civilized be maintained.

Umbertide has remarkably little violent crime though—I guess its citizens are all too busy with the more lucrative kind.