This is a solidly-written fantasy book, the first of a series by a new (to me) author, and it has lots to recommend it to anyone who enjoys this genre. Unfortunately, I can't say that it particularly grabbed me beyond that.

Our story is set in a world with an immortal king, with ruthless noble houses throwing their weight around - a major technology, used particularly to ensure that said king and nobility keep both their wealth and their power, is the use of spirits as both alarm systems and enforcers. Our protagonist (Kat) is a thief whose father was involved in researching those systems and who has a tattoo he created which allows her to affect and sometimes control them. After her father's death, she found herself in dire straits and ended up stealing for a living before she gets dragged into a conspiracy against the state that she's not particularly interested in.

There's some very nice world-building in this book, with a magic system that's slightly different to what I've seen before, and in general the characterisation is pretty solid too. At times the pacing is a little uneven, which made some sections drag, and I couldn't really find it in myself to care about what happened to Kat. Never a good sign at the start of a trilogy? All in all, worth my time as a reviewer but not a book I would be coming back to at any time and I doubt I'll make much effort to pick up the next in the series.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher, via Netgalley. This is my honest review of the book in question.