There are vipers in Arajon, from the Valley to the Bronze.

Grace Harrington, the Dowager Archon of Arajon, is approaching her first anniversary on the throne she claimed following the death of her husband, slain at her own hands.

But her position is so precarious that even the unwelcome presence of the former assassin Nathaniel Morgenstern, watching over her at her father’s behest, cannot protect her from her enemies. The city’s press has turned against her, the Bronze is rallying behind Odessa White, and her last hope of support from the Druids has gone up in smoke.

The lies are adding up. A coup is coming for Grace, and she is running out of people in the city to trust…

Review:

**This is a review for book 3 in a series, so this review contains some spoilers.

In this latest book within the Death’s Embrace series there is plenty going on. Including an evolving ensemble of characters. Grace is now thrust into a powerful position after her husband’s death in the big finish of series book #2. Her husband was the (lineage descendent) Archon of Arajon when Grace married into that family. Since his death, and she killed him, she’s become the Dowager Archon. It’s never been easy sailing in this world for the characters of this series. Grace’s father, Doran, was the leader of the rebel Black Lung Gang, fighting for positive change for workers, having a target on his back. He took over after his wife died when Grace was a young girl. The BLG has since gone quiet, although people remain that were once a part of it. Now, life in Iole City is even farther way from calm, there is so much tension everywhere. Only a couple of people know Grace killed her husband, Bryson Carlyon. Since he was the Crown, and she wears it now, his death and her future on the throne hangs in the balance. Will someone find out she killed him and weaponize it?

At a visit to Lord Devonshire, of Devon Manufacturers, Devonshire makes his play to get Grace to give his company the contract for the Hydro Electric Scheme, a project that hasn’t even officially been announced. Yet Devonshire already knows about it. Who on her council is leaking information? To be honest, that’s the least of Grace’s problems.

It’s not that Grace hasn’t achieved things in her year as the Archon. She has. It’s one of the reasons Devonshire wants to work with her. He knows she has a vision and can turn a profit. However, where there’s power and money there are snakes. Grace has two big ones – Odessa White, married to Bryson’s sister, who wants the power herself. And Lady Leonora Darkwater has come slithering back into Iole City, trying to gain money, some momentum, wanting Nathaniel’s recipe for (the very powerful drug) Embrace. 

“I see we’ve gotten off on the wrong foot,” she said, more reserved now. “Perhaps I can… make amends?”
“You can try,” Nathaniel said. “But you’re delusional if you think I will assist you in your pursuit of the mines. You should know when to walk away from a battle you’ve lost.”

Leonora can literally mindfuck people into giving her what she wants. Embrace is dangerous, worth money, and Nathaniel has an immunity to the poison of the drug. He was an assassin, but it’s not easy saying no. It’s different now. He has Doran, his love interest, and Gerald, his original apprentice, and Shoshana, his new apprentice, to protect and think about, and Grace is under his watchful eye as well. So it isn’t just about him anymore.

An emissary is sent in the Valley to talk to the Draoidhean about the Sacred Pact. Maybe they’ll allow them to use what is a sacred river, the Sionanne, for the Scheme. They haven’t endorsed Grace so it’s rocky ground she’s treading on. She is young and as mentioned above, there are those who want to oust her. Her council could make decisions unfavourable to Grace as well. Doran makes sure that Nathaniel is by Grace’s side when she is out, even though Grace doesn’t like him, because there are potential threats. Things get rowdy and then violent at a protest outside the Devon factory after her initial visit so it’s good that Nathaniel is there. Between the guards indiscriminately shooting into the crowd, and the death of a factory worker, Grace is incensed by the factory’s inability to have prevented something happening to the worker, and the guards thug-like behaviour. She tells the captain of the guards, Iovanius, to sack half of them. Something Iovanius is loathe to do.

“There are other ways to keep order than to threaten everyone with a baton and a gun. Stand down half of your soldiers by the end of today.”
Reagan Iovanius’s fury leeched into the air with a toxicity that turned Grace’s bones brittle.
“You child,” she hissed.

To be honest, Grace is a child. She’s young and sometimes her ire is misplaced. Her feelings not well handled in such a position. She’s implementing quick change, which most people are never good with, and she wasn’t born into this family. The Valley’s representatives won’t even come to the city let alone recognise Grace as the Lady Archon, which the papers, the Iole Chronicle in particular, love to rub in. Jasper Catherick is the Rupert Murdoch of Iole and surrounds. He doesn’t like Grace as Archon and has clickbait headings targeting Grace, pretending to care about the workers and citizens, talking up anything and everything negative and divisive about her.

The sacked guards become private protection for the wealthy people in the Bronze which causes problems for Grace, therefore her father who she is often at loggerheads with. Doran tries so hard to be a decent father under difficult circumstances. He is (and has been) such a people pleaser for so long – Foreman at the mines, leading the Black Lung Gang, both brought trouble and persistent whingers into his life. Grace rebels against him readily. She had already left him to be with her wealthy grandparents at one stage. He would even leave the man he has become romantically close to for Grace. While Grace doesn’t like Nathaniel, she doesn’t know the half of it. There is a BIG secret there. While Iovanius throws support behind Grace, it always feels like the support is about as safe as being on a cliff’s precipice. Someone on a mission to the Valley for her is dead. Odessa White is constantly vitriolic and she isn’t backwards in how she feels about Grace, and Grace and her role as Archon. 

This book leads up to a huge climax and some people I like a hell of a lot, well, I’m not sure what’s happened to at least one of them. I’m worried about my people. I am fortunate enough to have series book #4 awaiting me so I can be put out of my misery (or not) fairly shortly.

H L Moore writes this fantasy/spec-fic series really well. It’s incredibly atmospheric, you can visualise very clearly the districts, the factories, the mines that are described. The environment. There is no mistaking this world she has created for contemporary times. It doesn’t mean, however, that there aren’t some parallels, because there definitely are. The trial by media, the clickbait headings, we are living in those times right now. The way the people behave around power is a constant. Some will do anything to get it and some will keep fighting to keep it. People can surprise you with their lack of humanity, others with their need to be the best humans they can be, in spite of their human faults. I really enjoyed being back, although that ending had me gasping. 4 Stars!