Having recently read another book by the late author, written late in her career, The King's Demon, I was prepared to be disappointed with the present novel, so was pleasantly surprised. Set in the kingdom of Vyskir where the populace worship both a god - known as the God - and a female deity, subservient to him and acting as an intermediary between humans and the God, rather in the mode of the Virgin Mary, although she is not known to have a child, this is a tale of court politics, hidden agendas, betrayal and murder.

As the story opens, a seemingly simple young woman, Nanta, is about to be chosen for a role which is necessary due to the hidebound rules which dominate court life. Kodor, the younger son of the Imperator, the monarch, cannot marry until Osiv, his older brother and heir to the throne, does so - and yet, unbeknown to the populace at large, Osiv is mentally handicapped. His childlike nature means he cannot take on the role of Imperator - and the Imperator always has to publicly approve the choice of his children's spouses. The current holder of the title is aging and unwell, and the senior religionists are desperate to get both his sons married off before he dies, as their country is menaced by a warlike neighbour. Duke Arec, ruler of that country, has a daughter whom he is prepared to use as a bargaining chip - by marrying her to the younger brother who will become regent. The two senior religionists - Urss, head of the male priesthood which controls worship of the God, and Beck, who leads the subservient female order which worships the Lady - would rather their land be peacefully subsumed into the joint rule of the eventual children of that union than be conquered by force.

Urss and Beck are both cynics and pragmatists, prepared even to employ murder to achieve their aims. The need to marry the firstborn to a pliant young woman of good but not powerful family who will not baulk when she discovers what she has been manipulated into means that they settle on Nanta - yet Nanta has a secret which has haunted her for years. And so, it turns out, does Kodor ... in fact, there are momentous secrets hugged close by Urss and Beck also. But events are about to tear away the veil of secrecy.

I enjoyed reading the various viewpoints from Nante, Kodor, his bride, Pola, the two manipulative religionists, and a priestess of the Lady who tries to befriend Nante but struggles against her own issues. As with other books by this author, there are point of view shifts within a scene: they did not confuse me, but I occasionally found them irritating. I forgave that in this book for the interest of the storyline. However, the one 'off' note again, as in The King's Demon, is that the supposed hero violently assaults a woman, although in this book there is at least an explanation later on which indicates the overpowering force which was ultimately responsible. I can see this was meant to drive a wedge between certain characters and prevent them becoming friends, and deprive Nanta of some otherwise useful support, but did think it could have been managed without needing that scene, so have deducted one star for that and the headhopping, hence a 4-star rating from me. ( )