Second paragraph of third chapter:

The great west road gate we stood before was closed for the funeral, but I had no idea what it could withstand. “Is there anything else that can be done to secure the gate?”

I originally bought this because I had ended up on the same panel as Sam Hawke at the Dublin 2019 Worldcon, and then counting the votes in the Hugo nominations in March, I was pleased to discover that she had made the final ballot for the newly renamed Astounding Award (formerly the John W. Campbell Award). So the book is in the Hugo voter packet, but I already had a paper copy.

I rather enjoyed it. It's a big fantasy tale, but the story is tightly focussed on a brother and sister, where the brother is a master of poison (the poison theme is run rather well through the book) and the sister has a chronic and unspecified health problem. There's a tight intersection between palace politics and territorial politics, some impressive plot twists and just enough supernatural for it to qualify as fantasy. A bit long, but I did find myself turning the pages enthusiastically. You can get it here.