'Priest of Bones' – Peter McClean (Jo Fletcher Books)

There used to be a time when I was able to keep up with all the cool genre fiction being published but these days? These days, what with everything else going on, I generally count myself lucky if I get round to reading particular books at all. So it was then that 2018's 'Priest of Bones' eventually became a book that I got round to reading in 2022, which is actually pretty good going for me (he says, looking wistfully at the piles of books lying around the flat). But anyway...

This would normally be the sentence where I say 'let me tell you all about it' but if Twitter is anything to go by, you've probably already read 'Priest of Lies' and have been patiently waiting to tell me how good it is. And you'd be right, it's bloody good (with a certain degree of emphasis on the 'bloody...')

'Sixty-five thousand battle-shocked, trained killers came home to no jobs, no food and the plague. What did Her Majesty think was going to happen?'

Tomas Piety takes his duties seriously: as a soldier, as a priest of Our Lady of Eternal Sorrows and as a leader of men. He has come home from the war to reclaim his family business, to provide for his men and to ensure the horrors of Abingon can never happen in Ellinburg.

But things have changed: his crime empire has been stolen and the people of Ellinburg - his people - have run out of food and hope and places to hide. With his best friend Bloody Anne, his war-damaged brother Jochan and his new gang, the Pious Men, Tomas sets out to reclaim what was his.

And as Tomas is dragged into a web of political intrigue by the sinister Queen's Men, forced to work against the foreign infiltrators lurking in the backstreet taverns, brothels and gambling dens of the Stink, one thing becomes clear.

The war has just begun.

Having grown up in the eighties, and probably read all the wrong fantasy books, I still get a kick out of reading fantasy fiction where the 'bad guys' are front and centre and that is exactly where they are in 'Priest of Bones', a book where I've been getting a few pages read, here and there, every chance that I get. It's very much one of those books where once you've read a few pages, you're there for the duration, whether you planned it that way or not.

Part of this is down to the cast of characters gracing these pages. I've also thought that it must be a hard job getting the balance right when your main players are basically right bastards. You want to give your reader characters that are bastards but not so much so that the reader can't find that common ground with them. On the other hand, you don't want to go too far the other way and have them not be bastards at all. I'd say that McClean hits that sweet spot right where the Pious Men aren't nice people but there are really good reasons for this, you'll end up not only understanding why Tomas and his men do what they do but rooting for them to get the job done. Well, I did anyway. Tomas and his brother are trying to do the right thing in the only way that they know how (which ironically, isn't the right way to go about things at all) and I couldn't help but get behind that. Tomas in particular has a real sense of responsibility towards 'his people' that will have me back for the next instalment, just to see how he deals with things when... It's pretty bleak and heartbreaking in places but it's always in context.

Mix in a whole load of the kind of fighting that works best in narrow alleyways (and other people's houses) and you've got another reason to keep reading. Some characters are safe, as a rule, but McClean isn't too fussed about the rest of them and had a habit of gutting the ones that I wanted to see do well. Don't find yourself a favourite amongst the supporting cast, that's all I'm saying ;o)

And then there's the plot itself.

I'm going to avoid making all the comparisons that have been made already... okay no I'm not, I got real 'Godfather 2' vibes, 'Scarface' as well. Lets try again... What we have here is a well thought out and engaging tale of just what gangsters can be capable of if you send them to war first. Cue all the fights and intricate plotting that takes on an arc that I expect to see play out over however many books there are in the series. There are a lot of questions to get your teeth into but the main plot is self contained enough that you get a decent sense of closure come the end of the book. Tomas may have things come to him a little too easily at times but there are good reasons for that so it works. I'd expect to see things balance out over the course of the series though, we'll see.

If the next couple of books are anything like 'Priest of Bones' then I can see that I'm in for a little bit of a treat. 'Priest of Bones' is an excellent opening salvo in a series that I have very high hopes for. I've got to wait for payday, before I can pick up the series again, but I won't leave it as long this time.