Mortedant's Peril

Irody can speak to the dead.
But the living want him silenced.

Mortedants can speak to the dead –­ and Irody Hasp is the greatest of them. Not that they’ll admit it. And not that anyone actually likes the Mortedants, or Irody in particular.

Nonetheless, Elbay is a city of tradition, and tradition calls for Mortedants to attend a death. But when Irody reads the corpse of a low-level worker, he’s dragged into a conspiracy that will see those closest to him murdered and Irody framed for the crime, the eyes of the city’s guilds, nobles and villains all fixed on him.

With only days to prove his innocence before his execution, Irody is forced to work with unlikely and unwanted allies: a street urchin and a hulking, inhuman mercenary from the sea people’s city of Oknosuka. With danger and death lurking round every corner, and trust a luxury, Irody is running out of time. He must save himself and his friends as well as Elbay – the magnificent, terrifying, complicated city that he loves. Or darkness will fall on them all.


PRAISE FOR RJ BARKER

‘Brilliant’
Robin Hobb

‘A gifted storyteller’
Nicholas Eames

‘A splendid fantasy work . . . Highly recommended’
Adrian Tchaikovsky

RJ Barker is a critically acclaimed and award-winning author of fantasy fiction. He won the 2020 British Fantasy Society’s Robert Holdstock award for Best Novel for his fourth novel, The Bone Ships.

His debut trilogy The Wounded Kingdom (Age of Assassins, Blood of Assassins and King of Assassins) was nominated for the David Gemmel Award, the Kitschies Golden Tentacle, The Compton Crook and the BFS Best Debut and Best Novel awards.

It was called ‘Thoroughly entertaining and constantly impressive’ by the Fantasy Hive, ‘One of the best fantasy series you will ever read’ by the BFS, and ‘A singular sensational new voice in epic fantasy’ by Kings of the Wyld author Nicholas Eames.