jacey | Booklog 36/2019 - Sebastien de Castell: Queenslayer

The fifth Spellslinger book featuring Kellen and his business partner, squirrel-cat Reichis, who are in Darome, and still separated from Kellen's Argosi mentor. Kellen has inadvertently committed treason by smearing (his) blood on the Daroman flag and he's about to be executed when the eleven year old Queen Genevra demands he become her tutor of cards. This is his get-out-of-jail-free card, but Kellen is immediately embroiled in court machinations The political twists are… twisty. His sister Shalla turns up as an ambassador from Jan'Tep and as usual it's difficult to fathom out whether she's on Kellen's side or not. In this instance she's bringing cryptic instructions from their father who is now mage-leader of the Jan'Tep and is the one who has put a price on Kellen's head. Kellen's magic is weaker than any other mage likely to be trying to kill him, so he has to be sneaky, but sneaky may not be enough to get him out of this one. He's trying to come to terms with his shadowblack infection, despite the fact that he believes it could lead to him being taken over by a demon.

This is the penultimate book in the series, so Kellen has one more book to figure out who he is and what he's doing with his life. Looking forward to the last book, Crownbreaker, sue October 2019. I loved Sebastien de Castell's Greatcoats series. (Highly recommended!) This isn't in quite the same league, but it's close and well worth reading from the beginning.