Who actually holds the deed to the land is much more difficult to determine than it should be. Vlad pulls in Kiera the Thief to help. The land appears to be connected to a prominent financier who recently died under suspicious circumstances. With the paperwork Kiera lifts from his home, they determine that Fyres was a master con artist -- he appeared to be wealthy but his companies were shells -- so many loans were involved from various banks and Houses that the inevitable defaults will have serious consequences for the Empire.
The seventh book in the series brings us back into the twisted political intrigue of the Dragaeran Empire. I wasn't all that invested in figuring out the connections between Fyres, the banks, the tenants, etc -- I knew Vlad would eventually spell it out for us -- so I just enjoyed watching him and Kiera in action. We see a lot more of Kiera this time -- she's present throughout the entire story and narrates most of it. It was interesting seeing Vlad through her perspective, "Sometimes I forget just how devious he is and how good he is at improvising, and his skill at calculating odds and pulling off improbable gambits. Sometimes he thinks he's better at these than he actually is, and it is likely to get him killed one of these days."
We not only see Vlad through Kiera's perspective, but we also see something of her relationship with Cawti. They remain in contact and through this we learn that Cawti misses Vlad but still believes they can't be together. And Kiera knows things about each of them that she chooses not to share, some things because they aren't ready to share them with each other, but some things for her own reasons. Although we learn a lot about Kiera in this book, including her reason for watching over Vlad, her motivations remain mostly mysterious.
Scenes to look forward to: Vlad tries to disguise himself as a Dragaeran, which involves shaving his mustache, wearing a wig, and swaggering in ridiculously high platform boots. Big reveals about Kiera and Cawti.
