A death cleric falls into a web of conspiracy and rebellion when someone murders his apprentice in the propulsive, (mis)adventurous fantasy mystery Mortedant's Peril by RJ Barker (Heart of the Wyrdwood).
Irody Hasp works as a Mortedant, a reader of the dead, and is the most disliked practitioner in the city of Elbay. His finances are dire enough that he takes work his neophyte finds in a "downtier" (lower-class) neighborhood. When the deceased's widow tries to stab him, he launches a cabbage in defense, and tragedy ensues when Irody's neophyte is murdered shortly afterward. The authorities accuse Irody, since "no one cares about the truth when there is an easy option." Irody has only three days to find the real killer or face execution. Aiding him are his neophyte's headstrong younger sister, Mirial, and Whisper, a behemoth sea person assigned to guard Irody. Irody considers them both nuisances, but as the unlikely trio uncover a tangle of treachery encircling their city, they form a bond that could last a lifetime, if they don't die in the process.
Readers who adore Katherine Addison's Cemeteries of Amalo trilogy will find satisfying similarities here, but they're wedded to a more action-forward plot and an acerbic, likably unlikable hero. Barker's world of spirit-animated devices, sleeping gods, and political machinations provides plenty of canvas on which Irody and friends can run into trouble in future volumes of this planned series, and tantalizing questions remain in the conclusion. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads