City of lies (2018)

Jovan's family protects the Chancellor through an obscure, exacting knowledge of poison. When that protection fails during a siege, the ruling circle's assumptions about its own city become as dangerous as the immediate attack. Hawke gives inherited service, councils and class divisions practical weight. This begins the Poison Wars duology and suits readers who want a political mystery to test what loyal, well-intentioned insiders have failed to notice.