Booklog 99/2025: Lois McMaster Bujold: The Testimony of Mute Things – Penric and Desdemona #4

This is fourth in chronological order, though fifteenth in publication order. It dips back to Penric's earlier days when, as assistant to Princess Archdivine Llewen, he's involved (along with his resident demon, Desdemona,  in a conclave in Occo, to decide which border towns belong to which duchy after a war in which the borders became so flexible there are arguments on both sides. A murder leads Penric to investigate what the murdered woman had been trying to tell Llewen the evening before she died. This leads to twisty revelations involving long-time financial hanky-panky and a final revelation and satisfying conclusion.