Mortedant's Peril

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

‘An engrossing, ingenious story in a beautifully crafted world’ – Adrian Tchaikovsky

A Sunday Times bestselling tale of mystery, murder, magic and mayhem from RJ Barker, award-winning author of The Bone Ships.

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 record-keeper, he’s dragged into a conspiracy that will see someone close to him murdered and Irody framed for the crime. With only days to prove his innocence before he is executed, 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 Oknusoka. With danger lurking around every corner, 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.

Mortedant's Peril is an epic historical fantasy perfect for fans of Six of Crows and City of Last Chances.

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'A plot that gently sinks its claws into you and pulls you along from one chapter to the next. I loved it from the first page'
– John Gwynne, author of The Faithful and the Fallen

'Mortedant’s Peril is a fabulous fantasy mystery set in a fresh, imaginative world'
- Sebastien de Castell, author of Traitor's Blade

'Fabulous, frantic and moving’
– The Daily Mail

‘A splendid fantasy work . . . Highly recommended’
– Adrian Tchaikovsky, author of Children of Time


_{Mortedant's Peril was a Sunday Times bestseller w/c 25/05/2026.}

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 Kitschie Golden Tentacle 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.