Priest of Gallows picks up right where Priest of Lies left off, and is similarly excellent and as dark and brutal as ever. Tomas Piety remains cool as hell, and the extra screen time given to Vogel cements him as one of the most power-hungry, ambitious, scheming bastards in the genre. Some of the new characters introduced are set up to have big roles to play in the finale, too.

I do have a few gripes with this entry. The repetition of certain affirmative phrases (I had to allow, had to admit, etc.) is still rampant here, and while it's a stylistic choice, it's one I'm having a hard time gelling with. It fit's with Piety's characterization, sure, but it gets a bit old reading the same phrases added on to the end of a sentence every couple of pages.

Secondly, it's clear this series was originally meant to be a trilogy and then got stretched out into four books. Stuff happens in the book, especially as you reach the end, but this is very much a setup novel, laying down all the plotlines that'll be resolved in the finale. It's by no means a placeholder book, but there are definitely some slower sections than we've seen previously.

All in all a great entry in what's become an excellent series filled with fun characters.