The premise of this book is intriguing. One character, Mikael, "dreams" the deaths of others as they are happening, while another, Shironne, with altogether different psychic powers, can see into these dreams. They are kept apart by the law enforcement apparatus of their city, which nevertheless uses them both to try to solve murders. Of course they must eventually meet in order to solve a major case, but all involved fear that their connection will cause them both emotional distress... among other outcomes.

My favorite thing about this book is how Shironne, having lost her sight as an adolescent, finds different ways of doing things. As a "touch-sensitive" psychic, for instance, she is able to climb down a tree by sensing the places where her younger sister's hands have touched the bark. Her relationship with her younger sisters is generally a high point of the book, in fact. I also enjoyed Shironne and Mikael's banter, once they finally meet, although the way the book treats their age difference is confusing. That is, Shironne is legally considered a child as per the custom of Mikael's culture, and therefore a romance is inappropriate according to his superior officers, but she's not too young according to the custom of her own people, regardless of how she is treated at home. But everybody on both sides acts like the age gap is a forever hindrance even the two are only something like 5 years apart, there are additional factors consering their psychic connection, and Shironne will be legal in only four months. FOUR MONTHS. (If it seems like I'm harping on this, it's because the book is in some ways a thinly disguised romance novel, masquerading as a fantasy murder mystery.)

In any case, the different cultures, of which there are 3 major ones existing in their city, are pretty confusing in general. The author seems to think that a constant stream of Names (people, peoples, places) is an adequate substitute for deep and thorough world-building. This is still going on up until nearly the end of the book, as Names are introduced that have bearing on the final outcome of the murder mystery plot. There is a lot of info dumping throughout, frequent casual mention of what seems like important historical background information, and absolutely zero explanation of the magic system, such as it is. The latter is apparently limited to psychic powers (mainly for "sensitives" empaths) and some spurious blood magic on the part of the plot's antagonists.

The plot is pretty messy, but above all boring. This book is incredibly slow. I almost didn't finish it, but for certain scenes that grabbed me, nestled amid long sections of tedium and repetition. Characters tell each other information that's already been revealed between other characters, and thus to the reader, who then has to read through it all over again. Conversations or observations about all manner of things seem to be repeated several times. The structure of the city -- which somewhat resembles a generic fantasy world with early/late-modern technology (some soldiers have guns) -- is only vaguely laid out, with the only interesting detail being that the "Families" live in vast underground fortresses while the other 2 major cultural groups, one of which includes the ruling monarchy, live above ground. But how this all came to be is quite murky, as is the city's relationship to adjacent lands that become relevant later. There are so many characters, and their bloodlines and relationships are all so intermingled already that it's hard to keep track of who is of which group, or why it's even important at all.

There is a lot of promise here, but the delivery just didn't work very well for me.