jacey | Booklog 15/2023: Peter McLean: Priest of Gallows

Tomas Piety, was made an army priest towards the end of the war which still haunts him, but now he's been made a Queen's Man, has married Ailsa (also a Queen's Man) but it's a marriage of convenience with neither love not sex attached, except, perhaps, love on Tomas's part. They have an adopted son who is a cunning man, i.e. strong in magic. Tomas is getting more and more involved with politics in the capital, Dannsburg, and his links with the Pious Men (his band of gangster thugs) are getting weaker, with his friend, Bloody Anne taking over his role.

When the Queen is killed, her mad-as-a-bag-of-spanners daughter is next in line, but she's young enough to need a regent. Unfortunately she's also a 'cunning woman', but she doesn't know how to control her power. Dieter Vogel, Tomas' boss in the Queen's Men, is gradually growing in political power and Tomas has suspicions, though he dare not voice them. The capital is a hot-bed of informants and people who ask too many questions have a nasty habit of disappearing.

Tomas has lived through one war and still suffers from PTSD (here called battle shock). It has all but ruined his brother Jochan. The last thing Tomas wants is another war and it's looking as though the Skanians are planning to invade. Tomas wants to avoid that at all costs.