The King is dying and the Princess, Raesinia, is beset on all sides by the spies of the Minister of Information, Orlanko. Marcus d'Ivoire, Janus bet Vhalnich and Winter Ihernglass are back from the war in Khandar ready to support the new Queen. Will they be enough? 
 This is the second in the "Shadow Campaigns" trilogy and I enjoyed this one more than "The Thousand Names" as there was much less emphasis on the fighting and more on the personalities. Orlanko is a great character, thoroughly unlikeable and full of horrible schemes whereas Raesinia, who I also thought was well written, has much more about her than may first appear. 
 I did feel there was more character development this time and the story did progress more quickly because there was much less description of the battles and the arrangements leading up to them. Nevertheless, I still did feel there was a lot of violence which didn't really add to the story, and it could probably have been 3/4 in length if the extraneous bits had been left out! 
 Nevertheless, I enjoyed hearing more about Janus, Marcus and Winter, and I will definitely read the last part of the trilogy so that I can see how the story finishes. An easy read, but maybe one that became a bit too bogged down in unnecessary details in parts.