Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir
A locked-room mystery with necromancers, sword fights, and far more skeletons than you expect.
While the setting may be a bit macabre, Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir is, at it’s base, a locked-room mystery. Gideon is an orphan raised on a planet run by a family of necromancers. Theirs is the ninth house, there are eight others ruled by the emperor of the first house. Gideon has been wanting off this planet since she was old enough to hold a sword, which was very young. She is constantly thwarted by her only peer Harrowhark. Finally getting off planet, with only each other for backup is not ideal for either. As the swordswoman and her necromance face the other houses, it is quickly realized that they have to trust each other to stay alive. It gets real gross real fast as these folks have no problems with dead bodies and reanimation. Which house will pull ahead in service to the emperor? You have to dive into a pile of bodies to find out.
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