The Ringed Castle

This book has many of the same features of earlier books in the Lymond Chronicles series: adventure,feats of skill and daring, irritatingly autocratic behavior on the part of the hero, intricate politics, deadpan humor and more than a little melodrama, together with characters and events from history. It contains important developments in the story of Francis Crawford of Lymond, so if you're reading through the series, you can't skip over it. Also, it has some truly enjoyable parts, so you probably won't want to skip it. Still, this book doesn't do a good job of being a novel in its own right. It feels more like a chapter than the other books in the series.

Philippa Somerville is one of the highlights. Also, for the first time in the series you get snatches of Francis Crawford's perspective. Set in Russia and England, in 1557.