This was one of those stories (well, like Stevermer’s other books) where the universe she creates and the system she drops you into is really fascinating and also not fully explained beyond the needs of the plot. It’s not that one goes around feeling wrong-footed precisely, but that one is waiting to find out how much one can find out.
That part was fun.
The male supporting actor (for lack of a better term) was extremely annoying and did not at all deserve the thing resembling a redemption arc that he got. Which didn’t really help my enjoyment of the book.