title: The Winner's Crime (The Winner's Trilogy)
author:  Marie Rutkoski 
description: Gr 9 UpA romantic's romance novel, this second volume in Rutkoski's saga picks up where The Winner's Curse (2013) ended. Kestrel, a member of the Valorian ruling class, is engaged and will one day rule the empire. Meanwhile, Arin, Kestrel's former slave, is the leader of the Herrani people, and his subjects are starving thanks to the emperor's taxes. Kestrel is torn between her need to help Arin and her loyalty to her father, a general in the imperial army. Arin, in turn, is unraveled by his uncertainties: Is the woman he loves a power-hungry liar, or is she the spy who is supplying treasonous information that might just help him save his people? Some of Arin and Kestrel's misunderstandings and missed opportunities are more histrionic than wildly romantic, and though the plot is saturated with sword fights, subterfuge, and glittering parties, it isn't suspenseful as the previous entry. Poetic passages demonstrate the depth of Rutkoski's research and talent. "It suddenly seemed that Kestrel had been an empty room, and that all of her wishes came crowding in. They thronged: delicate, full-skirted, their silk brushing up against each other." The ending finds the protagonists again divided and facing life-threatening dilemmas, each thinking of the other. The last sentence resonates so strongly that it might just be enough to sustain fans until the first line of the final volume.Chelsey Philpot, Boston University, MA
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  [![](images/1_2.jpg)](05_Contents.xhtml#chap00)
  
  
  
  
  
  MARIE RUTKOSKI is a professor of English literature at Brooklyn College, where
  she teaches Shakespeare, children’s literature and creative writing. She lives
  in New York City with her husband and two sons. Marie can tie a good double
  figure-eight knot and is very fond of perfume, tea and excellent bread and
  butter.
  
  
  ![cover](images/Cover.jpg)
  
  
  [ALSO BY MARIE RUTKOSKI](05_Contents.xhtml#chap01)
  
  
  _The Winner’s Curse_
  
  
  _The Winner’s Crime_
  
  
  
  
  
  ![](images/4_2.jpg)
  
  
  
  
  
  Bloomsbury Publishing, London, Oxford, New York, New Delhi and Sydney
  
  
  First published in Great Britain in March 2016 by Bloomsbury Publishing Plc  
  50 Bedford Square, London WC1B 3DP
  
  
  First published in the United States of America by  
  Farrar Straus Giroux Books for Young Readers  
  175 Fifth Avenue, New York 10010
  
  
  [www.bloomsbury.com](http://www.bloomsbury.com)
  
  
  BLOOMSBURY is a registered trademark of Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
  
  
  Text copyright © Marie Rutkos