Mostly a story about how the space soldier/secret agent protagonist recovers from injuries and changes careers. There's also a mystery to solve along the way. This book wouldn't work for people who haven't read the earlier stories in this series, but it's worthwhile if you've become invested in those characters over the previous books. I didn't like how the main character got dismissed for filing a false report, then was appointed as a special prosecutor through nepotism; that felt forced. But I enjoyed the book overall. ( )

I have already read my print copy of McMaster's Memory more than once. It's one of my favorite books in the Vorkosigan Saga. I'd already listened to Mr. Grover's narration from the two audio books in the series that my local library owns, as well as my own four, so I had no fear of having my listening pleasure ruined by the narrator.

This eleventh book is a mystery recounting the end of one career for Miles Vorkosigan and signaling a new direction for his life.
The mystery itself is good, but the real fun (enjoyable through this listening as it was during my rereading), is Miles' efforts to work out whodunnit.

Of course Miles figured out who the perpetrator was and caught the evildoer with indisputable proof. The guilty party may have been very smart about some things, but a real twit about others. Okay, said twit couldn't have known that the man he was trying to frame was the beloved of one of the daughters of Emperor Gregor's highly regarded former bodyguard. Still, since there's never been any indication that Gregor dislikes or hates his former foster parents, the Count and Countess Vorkosigan, a little thought might have suggested that Gregor just could be fond of his foster brother, Miles. If so, repeatedly referring to Miles as 'that git' during the confession is unlikely to help one's case.

I highly recommend this audio book. ( )

April 2021 reread - Still a solid 4*. I found myself quite annoyed with Miles in the early parts of the book, more than I remembered being before.

August 2019 reread - The tension was a bit less this time around, knowing the outcome, but it was still a solid 4*.

4.5 stars. Grover Gardner did a terrific narration of this 10th or 11th entry in the Vorkosigan series. Very glad that I decided to check this audiobook edition out of the library! ( )

I'm not sure why I initially gave this 3 stars. I've re-read it half a dozen times now, and I've come to believe it's one of the best single books in one of my absolute favorite series. The pace of the plot seems uneven when you read it first, but there are good reasons for that. ( )

This is always summarised as the 'Miles hits 30, 30 hits back' book. But Bujold was in her 40s when it was published, and reading it in my 40s it seems more full of those themes. Bodies that don't work like they once did, starting to face your own limits and mortality, dealing with illnesses in the next generation up and realising that the people you thought were infallible are frailer and weaker now, looking at the career you poured yourself into and wondering what passed you by when you were doing it...

It's a very kind book, and quite unputdownable. ( )