When a corpse is found floating face down in Vilnoc Harbour, Temple Sorcerer Penric and his resident demon, Desdemona, are called in to solve a problem. The man is not quite as dead as he should be. In fact, his body is dead but is now possessed and reanimated. The tale unravels slowly. It's not quite a murder mystery but an exploration of death magic, which we first came across in The Curse of Chalion (chronologically later than the Penric stories.) There's a lot of soul-searching (literally). This is a more measured pace than Penric's action adventures. I've never yet met a Bujold book I didn't like. This is still well worth reading, but not my favourite in the series.