#mortedant's peril

I received a free copy from Tor Books via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Release date May 19th, 2026.

I had mixed feelings about Barker's Bone Ships, but it had some compelling elements and his latest premise was excellent, so I thought I'd give his writing another shot. In Mortedant's Peril, Irody Hasp is the poorest and least popular Mortedant, a cleric who reads the last moments of the recently deceased. When his neophyte is unexpectedly murdered, Hasp must find the murderer among the chaotic city-state of Elbay—or due to the city's illogical justice system, he'll be executed as the last person to see Malkin.

Mortedant's Peril is structured like a mystery novel, albeit not in the Golden Age style of ferreting out clues and following leads. Instead, Hasp follows the nearly equally classic method: walk around asking questions and causing problems until the guilty party tries to kill you. And since Malkin's murderer was mixed up in a political scheme much larger than the death of one neophyte, Hasp is about to stumble into a world of trouble. Unfortunately, his inherent prejudices against everybody from the poor to foreigners to other sects of priests mean he spends a solid chunk of the novel annoying completely the wrong people until they try to kill him. Hasp is so egocentric and abrasive that he becomes an unreliable narrator through sheer force of bad judgement. But while he spends most of the novel parroting bigotry about anyone from outside the city, he also has a secret soft spot and commitment to justice. Yes, he spends two thirds of the book calling his assigned bodyguard Whisper slurs, but he'd also quietly buy her a meat pie with his last pennies. However, while a narrator determined to investigate entirely the wrong leads keeps the reader guessing, the foreshadowing was a bit heavy-handed. I like when plot twists are logical and intuitive, but I don't need a big flashing neon arrow every couple of chapters telling me that the bad guys are plotting [redacted]. I get it!!!

I'd class the worldbuilding as vaguely steampunk rather than more typically medieval fantasy, but it's rich and detailed with no cliched top hats in sight. Elbay is a tiered city segregating the rich from the poor, with mechanical marvels powered by souls, a periodic death ray that blasts everything outside the walls, and three warring sects of priests plus a mythical fourth type of priest solely devoted to pipes. Also, Hasp has a ceremonial big floppy hat. Alas, in the eternal death match between the rich and the poor in Elbay, Hasp is decidedly on the losing side: while Mortedants are famous for corruption and skimming off the estate of the deceased, Hasp lives on a low tier and can barely pay his rent. Due to his lack of wealthy connections and general abrasiveness, the officials in the priory avoid assigning him any work as a Mortedant, and without work, he can't gather even the smallest fees.

Thrilled to have snagged a copy of Mortedant's Peril by R. J. Barker the gorgeous special edition by The Broken Binding 📚

Cover reveal for Mortedant's Peril by R J Barker via Tor Books.

"In a city of ancient automata, strange spirits, and sleeping gods, a cleric of death finds his own life on the line in this vividly imagined fantasy murder mystery from the acclaimed author of The Bone Ships and Age of Assassins."

Irody Hasp is a Mortedant, a cleric tasked with reading the last thoughts of the dead—though no one thanks him for it. No Mortedant is popular, but Irody is scarcely tolerated even by the other members of his own guild, and rarely selected for anything but the lowliest of jobs.

This impoverished existence would be dismal enough—but after reading the corpse of a low-level records keeper, Irody's troubles quickly multiply when his own apprentice is murdered, and all fingers point to him as a suspect. The only way to save his own skin is to find the real culprit himself, an investigation that quickly attracts powerful enemies with few scruples, and draws him into a plot that threatens the entire corrupt yet wondrous city he calls home.