City Of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett

 

Shara Thivani, a junior diplomat, has come to Bulikov, once rulers of the world when the Divinities were alive but now under the rule of her home country.  But she comes in disguise for Shara is actually a high ranking spy and the descendant of the man who killed the Divinities.  She didn't want to come here as her first love lives there but she owes a debt.  Her teacher and mentor was here to study the past and the mysteries still hidden there and has been murdered.

Shara is accompanied by her 'secretary', Sigrud.  He is never far from Shara's side as she rescued him years ago from a prison and years of solitary confinement and he is loyal to her to a fault.  He is a giant of a man, an assassin when need be and her protector always.  She is also helped by governor Turyin Mulaghesh, a woman in the military who only wants a new posting to a tropical setting.  

As Shara investigates the murder of her mentor troubling things start to occur.  There is activity going on that suggests all of the Divinities might not be dead.  Someone is buying up all the metal they can for unknown purposes.  She encounters her past love, Vo, and he seems to be mixed up in all the issues Shara is starting to unveil.  There is an Unmentionable Library where the artifacts of the Divinities are stores and it appears that someone has broken into it.  The city is still in ruins from the time of the defeat of the gods but there seems to be a group of rebels who want to take their country out from the rule of Shara's.  What will she uncover next and will she survive her knowledge?

Robert Jackson Bennett is one of the bright stars of the fantasy genre.  His novels are often set in, and use, cities as another of their characters.  In Shara, he has created an interesting ambivalent character who the reader will be intrigued by.  Sigrud is another character whose presence and actions linger long past the end of the book.  This is a spy novel, a mystery and an action novel and is recommended for fantasy readers.