Book 3 of The Dagger and the Coin series continues the war against the spider goddess with all the main characters back and advancing their storylines as you would expect. The power of the spider goddess priests to always detect when someone is lying is central to the story and this ability takes on new meaning as one starts to realize that the actual truth can take many forms. This fact muddies the water and many of the characters have to adapt their understanding of what the real struggle is. This book is all about those changing perspectives as the "war" is fought in many different ways.

Geder Palliako remains manipulated by the priests as he drives Antea's armies forward from victory to victory spreading the "truth" as the chosen of the goddess. Just one of many contradictions that surface in this book, Geder strives to bring peace to the world through war and conquest.  Luckily for the good guys, Master Kit also has the ability to detect truth when someone speaks and this evens the playing field a bit. Kit is well aware that the priests of the spider goddess are manipulating others to believe their lies and he plans to fight back. So he decides to recruit Marcus Wester for a fool's errand and the two of them set off to attempt to actually slay the spider goddess herself. Meanwhile, Cithrin continues to learn the banking trade, this time in a different city. However, much like in her past, no matter where she goes the war comes to her and she is forced to make difficult choices with severe consequences. And finally, Clara Kalliam must now consider the prospect of trying to save the nation of Antea in the only way she knows how, by betraying it.

The story keeps getting better and better and for the audiobook version Pete Bradbury provides excellent narration once again. If you have already read the first two books of the series then there is no reason to stop now.