It's really hard to say anything about this book without giving away something crucial in the experience of reading it. Many detective novels treat you as a passive passenger, following along without really engaging your deductive abilities in any way. This book's triumph: while Detective Tyador Borlu frantically tries to solve a murder in the East European city state of Besz, this book quietly, almost secretly, presents the reader with another, entirely different mystery to solve. This mystery is right on top, in the text, and you feel almost split in two trying to follow two enigmas, one of which only you can solve. This is by far the best book I've read in the last seven years.