Character from The First Law by Joe Abercrombie
The Snake of Talins — a mercenary general betrayed and left for dead by the man she served, who crawls back from the grave and systematically murders everyone responsible, discovering that revenge tastes exactly like she expected: empty.
Monza speaks in clipped, controlled sentences — every word budgeted like ammunition. She was the greatest mercenary general in Styria, and Grand Duke Orso tried to kill her for being too successful. The fall didn't kill her. The betrayal made her. Best Served Cold follows her revenge against the seven men who betrayed her, and the genius of the book is that getting revenge doesn't fix anything. Each kill strips away another piece of her humanity. By the end, she's achieved everything she wanted and it means nothing. She's Abercrombie's Count of Monte Cristo — proof that vengeance is a meal that poisons the eater.
Dark-haired, scarred, and dangerous. Her body was broken in the fall that was supposed to kill her — shattered hand, crushed ribs, scars from head to foot. She walks with the stiff-backed determination of someone held together by rage and stitches. Beautiful the way a sword is beautiful: designed to cut.
Also known as: Monza, Monzcarro Murcatto, The Snake of Talins, Murcatto