Iain M. Banks: Inversions (2002, Rendez-Vous Ailleurs)
Published Nov. 11, 2002 by Rendez-Vous Ailleurs.
In the winter palace, the King’s new physician has more enemies than she at first realises. But then she also has more remedies to hand than those who wish her ill can know about.
In another palace across the mountains, in the service of the regicidal Protector General, the chief bodyguard, too, has his enemies. But his enemies strike more swiftly, and his means of combating them are more traditional.
Possibly the single book from the series (from the ones I've read up to now) that relies in the reader having read the ones before it.
