They look human, have considerable mental and actual resources at their disposal, and have the advantage that no one actually believes they exist. They were thought to have vanished a thousand years ago, but Bez knows the Sidhe still live among human-occupied space. Even though there are not many of them left, they have people in key positions and wield considerable power and influence over what they consider a substandard race.

Bez has been fighting her own secret war against them. Using multiple identities and rarely staying long anywhere and building a network of spies and agents, she has located almost all of the Sidhe across habs. If she was to make one mistake though, the trap that she has spent her life setting will end in disaster and the Sidhe would have won. Her knife-edge balancing act begins to wobble when she realises that the only person who knows her real identity might not be able to be trusted and that there is another who claims to know who she is and has been helping her all along. To survive this, and bring about her life's work, she is going to need every instinct that has kept her alive so far.

This is the fifth in the series of the Hidden Empire series from Fenn, and it slots nicely into the universe that she has created in her previous books. The world building is as good as the previous books, I particularly liked the starliners that Bez uses to get to the different habs where the populations live in her universe. Apart from the main character, the rest are a little thin, but the plot rescues this with is fast pace, twists and turns and explosive ending. Great stuff as usual and I am eagerly looking forward to her new series. ( )