Platinum Magic

When on what they think is a regular raid, Simon Buckley leads his team, and they end up killing a High Elf who was performing some kind of weird ritual. She summoned golems, and seemed to be working some forbidden magic. Simon soon finds what was going on involves higher ups in the King's Agents, and is fighting for not only his job, but his life.

This story is a slow chess game with some action thrown in. Simon Buckley searches for answers to what is going on and why a respected, well known, High Elf would have been doing a questionable ritual at a place they suspected for a bomb factory. She also had an orc chained down as a captive, possibly to be used in the ritual.

There is also a bit of romance when someone is assigned to keep an eye on Simon. Simon of course doesn't trust this person and is weary at first, but after some time he starts to trust her. The romance I felt somewhat natural, and not forced. I even cheered for it to happen. I look forward to seeing what happens in the next book.