Capital Crimes, by Mike Reeves-McMillan.
A brilliant engineer and a daring agent uncover a plot that strikes at the foundations of their society.
The new capital of the human realm of Koslin delights in the latest technology, and the emancipated gnomes who build and maintain it.
Precision, one of the first gnome women to qualify as an engineer, and her almost-brother Piston, the first gnome to join the elite Realm Agents, uncover a plot to subvert the infrastructure of the city, steal its technology, and crash the economy. To thwart it, they must enter the place a gnome fears most: an unreformed dwarfhold, where gnomes are still bonded servants.
A steampunk-fantasy technothriller, start of a new standalone series in the world of the Gryphon Clerks. Complete in itself; no prior reading necessary, and no cliffhanger.