The Raven Scholar

It begins with a murder. In the dizzying heat of mid-summer, eight contenders gather to compete for the emperor's throne. Then one of them is murdered. It falls to the Raven contender, the brilliant but idiosyncratic Neema Kraa, to investigate. If she can solve the crime, she may gain the throne. If she fails, she will sentence herself to death. Neema has just seven days to find the culprit, for if the Emperor does not relinquish power by the end of the eighth day, it will invite civil war. And everyone knows that war could lead to the return of the True Eight: terrifying, godlike manifestations of the Empire's eight guardian animals. No one really believes in this magical metaphor, though it lies at the heart of Orrun law. It couldn't really happen. Could it.