Liam is back and helping the beleaguered Aedile with a confounding mystery involving the city's religious sects, while trying to solve one of his own. Liam's house, formerly the wizard Tarquin's, has been burgled but, out of all the valuable magical artifacts that could have been taken, only three items are missing. What is more puzzling is that the house is still magically warded against intrusion. With no other wizards in the city, who could have gotten into the house? Meanwhile the Aedile, chief law keeper for the city, is tearing his hair out over a roving ghost, temples of different gods agitating each other, and an attempted theft at one of the temples--and of course he begs Liam, who has come to believe is some kind of bounty hunter in disguise, to assist him. There is more worldbuilding in this volume of the series than the last one and more fantasy elements. Fanuilh figures a bit more, venturing beyond the house to assist his master in various ways. I was stumped by this mystery, although I figured out the one in the last book. Again we are treated to glimpses of Liam's past, some of which have been a bit checkered. I enjoyed this book just as much as the first--enough to order the rest of the series when they weren't available at my local used bookstore. It makes me wish that Hood had written more than this series.