Booklog 60/2025: Peter McLean: Priest of Bones – War for the Rose Throne #1 – Audiobook

[jacey]

Audiobook narrated by David Morley Hale.
This was a revisit for me. I read the Kindle Version in February 2023, and thoroughly enjoyed it, but was tempted to the audiobook by the quality of the narrator. David Morley Hale does a marvellous job, voicing Thomas Piety as a gut-rough northerner. Piety returns to Ellinburg from a horrendous war, bringing back his surviving soldiers (including his second, Bloody Anne, and his war-damaged brother, Jochan) to take back his ‘streets’ and his businesses (brothels, gambling dens, taverns and protection rackets) only to find they’ve been taken over and his aunt (who was caretaking) has fled to a convent. Thomas has to take over his territory again, brutal blow by brutal blow. But it seems as though the threat of war is not over. There’s a fearsome Queen’s Man in town who can make life very uncomfortable, and short for him. When he’s informed that foreign infiltrators are responsible for the takeover, he’s pushed to do something about it lest they invade his city. His watchword is the right man for the job, and it seems as though Thomas is the right man to oust the foreigners, helped by the Queen’s Man (who happens to be a woman – very attractive, but lethal). This is a high body-count book, full of conflict and peril, but it also shows the effects of violence on men’s souls. Thomas is a great character, very human despite his criminality. My original review is on Goodreads here: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/37884491-priest-of-bones