City of Whispers by Katt Powers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Dhani Karim is a trained assassin, her weapons of choice are throwing knives, a metal baton, hair accessories which double as lethal spikes, a bracelet which can be used as a garotte and a set of lock picking tools in her brassiere, but in a land of magic, she is one of the few people who cannot wield it. However, due to an accusation of a murder she didn’t commit, she has now been demoted from Imperial Assassins to a lowly covert operative for a year until a judgement can be made as to whether she can rejoin the ranks and as such has been sent to the smallest town which is at the furthest point possible from the capital city.

Dhani has just arrived in the Imperial Colony of Tizrak Yirda to report to her superior, it is a hot, dry place with insects galore, but the thing she is least happy about is the touchy feely guard who took it upon himself to frisk her at the entrance of the Regional Command building with the excuse that it was to find her weapons, although he did get a cracked rib courtesy of her elbow for the inconvenience. Repeating the Imperial Assassin’s mantra she enters the office and faces the music, amid the veiled and outright insults she is told that she is not wanted and that it is only because it has been ordered that she is allowed to be there, she will also have to work with a partner, who isn’t wanted either and that their assignment is to find an individual of interest. The two of them are handed a file and told they have three days to find this person, but that they don’t need to know why they are looking for them and after they are dismissed, they go to find their office which is tiny and full of dust where her partner asks her why she hasn’t kept to protocol and isn’t impressed with her answers, or her attitude, however, she isn’t impressed with his attitude either, but they come to an understanding and an agreement eventually and come up with a plan of action, but albeit reluctantly.

When they go to the archives to pull the files they need, they find that one of the people who should have a file doesn’t and others who don’t need a file do, but they put it to the back of their minds and decide who they are going to talk to first, but it isn’t as easy and straightforward when the people on the list are less than enthusiastic to talk to them, one of them is even dead, but they are sure that at least one of them is lying about what they know. As they make their way through the other names of the list, they find that they are being tailed and are eventually attacked, but when three others join in, they realise that they are outnumbered, but they prevail and Dhani is dropped off outside her lodgings as her partner goes to find some much needed medical help, she finds that one of the people is wearing a bracelet with a religious symbol on it, which looks familiar. The evening is not over for Dhani though as she finds that her apartment has been ransacked while they were out, she gathers what is left of her belongings and goes to find one of her stashes to replenish them, the next thing she does is to go to another place where she knows she will receive a warm welcome and have a place to stay.

Over breakfast the next morning, she talks to the people she is staying with and finds out some interesting information , but when she goes on the search for her partner, she realises that he is not going to be of any help to her, so she decides to draft a message to send the the General to tell him of the developments in the case. As the days progress and this simple search for a missing person becomes a lot more complicated and every time Dhani thinks she has a handle on things, something else happens, but will she be able to solve the mystery of this person of interest and why it ties into the religious imagery she has seen popping up everywhere before it is too late to do anything about it? This is an adventure with more twists and turns than a maze and is just as entertaining, it is a book which pulls you in and keeps you hooked until the end.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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