Equal to if not better than The Blade Itself, which is rare for the second book in a trilogy. The Blade Itself is fantastic but I felt like it largely exists to set up the world and the stakes. We don't see much character growth and the ending feels like a pause before the next chapter.

Before They Are Hanged takes everything that worked in The Blade Itself and makes it bigger and better. Now that we know the characters we get to watch them grow and change, we get to see the threats that were only hinted at in the first book realised, and we see much of what we've been working towards come to a head. This feels less like the middle book of a trilogy and more like the second half of the first novel.