One thing I enjoy about the Penric and Des books is that the author isn’t afraid to go out of order in time, so this book goes back to Penric’s days with the Princess-Archdivine in Martensbridge. He’s so young! (It is actually noticeable in certain ways that he interacts with Desdemona.)
This is a great court intrigue book – the archdivine has been asked to adjudicate the disposition of some neighboring temples in an area where recent wars have redrawn the map. Pen’s happy to go on the trip – he gets to practice his language skills, and there’s bound to be something interesting happening. That something interesting turns out to be when one of the local divines tries to see the arch-divine one evening, and turns up dead the next morning. It’s a fun mystery to solve.