Lois McMaster Bujold, an accomplished and expert writer of science fictions, applies her enviable skills to this, the third in her Chalion novels, self-contained fantasy tales that are tightly-plotted, character-driven dramas set in a carefully constructed world where the quasi-medieval politics and the supernatural mix to deadly effect. In The Hallowed Hunt, an exiled prince is murdered, and a young lord sent to bring his killer to justice. Except the prince was dabbling int forbidden rites and intended to force himself on the young woman, who bashed his brains in with his own war-hammer and received an unwelcome spiritual gift in return. The young lord has laboured his whole life under a similar burden, but it is not the wolf spirit welded to his own should that causes him to try and kill his charge.

What was the nature of the rite, and who placed the ugly spell on the lord, and what does it have to do with the impending death of the current hallow king and a conflict that came to a blood-soaked end centuries before?

I found this a bit slow to start. I found the last book I read a bit slow to start. I found the book before that slow to start. I think I may just be in a finding-books-slow-to-start kind of a mood. Past a certain point, Bujold's innate, not to say addictive, readability kicks in and between the compelling characters and the intractable mysteries and the tangled plot, slow turns to quick in no time flat.