The Grief of Stones

The Grief of Stones by Katherine Addison.

Way too eager to explore a haunted area called the 'Hill of Werewolves'

The 2.5th chapter of Thara Celehar's suffering starts off on a worryingly positive note. He gets to do normal things at his job, have minimal interactions with people in positions of power and even gets an apprentice! Fortunately we quickly return to normal, as investigating the suspected murder of an elderly marchioness leads him on the mother of all tangents, ending with something notably scarier than a ghoul and serious consequences.

Also, photography is apparently inherently pornographic in this world, since no-one seems to have realised you can take pictures of anything other than naked humans. The industry is exactly as exploitative and messed up as you'd expect for the fairly dark world of this series, but leads to some fun interactions between Celehar and his crush.

Overall a solid entry to the series, but didn't quite measure up to The Witness for the Dead or do anything to stop me missing The Goblin Emperor. Let's see how Katherine wraps the series up in the final book.