This is the third story of Dominic Flandry, a Lieutenant in the Imperial Secret service.
Flandry must stop a revolution on the border caused by a corrupt governor. He rescues a woman named Katheryn and falls in love with her but she remains dedicated to her husband, the leader of the revolt.
The book introduces a new alien species who are 3 part, interchangeable personalities.
Re-read 12/4/2022 ( )

Spoiler Warning. This is a still fairly young Flandry sent to investigate a rebellion by a popular Imperial admiral, Hugh McCormac. It turns out the revolt had been provoked by the sector governor, a (gay) favorite of the current weakling emperor, who was brutally exploiting his sector to raise funds to become the power behind the throne.The admiral had protested, the governor Aaron Snelund had arrested him, his loyal men freed the admiral who proclaimed himself emperor. Hugh's wife Kathryn had also been arrested and remained in Aaron's control while he savagely abused her. Flandry manages to get Kathryn transferred to his own ship, but while heading to negotiate with Hugh, his ship is shot down and crashes on Dido, a world whose aliens have a unique 3 part physiology (an mentality) one birdlike, one ape-like and one (on which the others ride) rhino-like (an extension of the 2 part aliens in a van Rijn story). Flandry, Kathryn his crew, and some friendly Didonians manage to reach a human scientific base and capture the only spaceship, on which they return to Snelund. Flandry has fallen in love with Kathryn, but she during the trek refuses his offer to switch sides in return for their becoming lovers.When they reach the loyalist base, Flandry is able to give the loyalists the computer codes for the rebel forces, thus winning Snelund's favor. He pretends to be returning Kathryn to Snelund, but instead helps her kill him.He then returns Kathryn to Hugh, after persuading him that the best course (given the loss of his codes) is to flee the empire with those who still follow him. Flandry is heartbroken for the moment to lose Kathryn, but finds consolations later. The head of Imperial Intelligence suspects what happened, but lets it go. ( )

I've read a fair amount of Poul Anderson, but this was my first Dominic Flandry novel. While there were aspects to it that were far from convincing, all in all I enjoyed it more than it probably deserves. The aliens were interesting if not particularly plausible. The resolutions of key plotlines were satisfying if not particularly plausible. The protagonist turned out to be more nuanced than the James-Bond-in-space pastiche I initially expected.

In tone it reminded me of A. Bertram Chandler's John Grimes series, but Flandry is a more complicated character, and Anderson manages to raise surprisingly substantial issues along the way. ( )