The Bone Palace
Amanda Downum
Orbit, Dec 1 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780316069007
In 499 Ab Urbe Condita in the royal city of Erisin, corpses are not a rare occurrence; but a dead prostitute wearing the ring of deceased queen has no precedent. Police Inspector Khelsea Shar shows the Necromancer Agent of the Crown Isyllt Iskaldur the body of the whore who possessed a regal signet and had no violent marks. Reluctantly Isyllt investigates who magically murdered the woman, and how and why she had the ring. To her chagrin, the case leads to the tombs below the city where the revolting vile vrykoloi vampires reside in lightless lairs.
Her inquiry spins worse than she imagined even with the vrykoloi involved as Isyllt learns a truth she must conceal from her King. Apparently a dead sorceress plans to return to take the throne; and she has support from Isyllt’s former lover Kiril and the Crown Prince Ionais’ mistress Sevedra Severos; as well as unknowing dupes.
Staying at home in her second Necromancer’s Chronicles, Isyllt has once again moral selections to make as espionage, politics, insurgency and military merge with magic in a fascinating investigative fantasy. Isyllt is a great protagonist because of her moral fiber as she must select between choices that she abhors. Readers will relish her brisk adventures as home proves as harrowing as her stay in the Drowning City, but worse because it is home.
Harriet Klausner
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