Author: Peter McLean | Narrator: David Morley Hale
Runtime: 11h 25m | Genre: Grimdark Fantasy, Crime, Low Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Espionage, Gangland
Mob boss Tomas Piety is forced into the capital of Dannsburg as a royal spy, navigating aristocratic treason and murderous street gangs.
Spanning eleven and a half gritty, razor-sharp hours, *Priest of Lies* is the electrifying second installment in Peter McLean’s *War for the Rose Throne* series, shifting the violent underworld action of Priest of Bones from the slums of Ellinburg into the gilded, serpent-filled halls of the royal capital, Dannsburg. Mob boss and former army priest Tomas Piety has successfully reclaimed his criminal turf, but his victory has caught the deadly attention of the Queen’s Men—the ruthless royal secret police led by the terrifying spymaster Ailsa.
Blackmailed into royal espionage, Tomas and his hardened crew of 'Pious Men'—including his volatile, blade-wielding brother Jochan and the cunning Bloody Anne—are dispatched to Dannsburg to root out aristocratic treason and French-backed subversion. Tomas finds himself out of his depth: in the capital, murders are committed with perfumed smiles and poisoned bank notes rather than broken bottles and meat hooks. As dark sorcery and forbidden alchemical powers creep into the criminal underworld, Tomas must fight to preserve his soul and protect his family from being chewed up by the royal meat-grinder. McLean’s Peaky Blinders-style crime storytelling blends perfectly with gritty low-magic grimdark fantasy.
Narrator David Morley Hale delivers another pitch-perfect performance, voicing Tomas Piety with a gravelly, working-class soldier's pragmatism and cold, understated menace. Hale’s rhythmic delivery of Tomas’s inner monologues captures his traumatized post-war psyche with haunting realism. Fans of gritty crime fiction like Slow Horses and visceral grimdark like The Blade Itself will find *Priest of Lies* an addictive, credit-worthy listen from start to finish.
War for the Rose Throne Reading Order: • Priest of Bones (Book 1 – 10h 05m) • Priest of Lies (Book 2 – 11h 25m) • Priest of Gallows (Book 3 – 11h 05m) • Priest of Crowns (Book 4 – 11h 50m) • Paved with Good Intentions (Book 5 – 10h 30m)
David Morley Hale’s narration on Priest of Lies is a masterclass in gritty, character-driven storytelling. Hale embodies Tomas Piety with an authentic, world-weary gravel and quiet ruthlessness that feels genuinely dangerous. His ability to voice the manic instability of Jochan alongside the polished, chilling menace of the Queen’s Men gives every tense dialogue sequence crackling energy. Mastered with crisp, punchy audio engineering across eleven hours, this is underworld grimdark at its finest.
*Note: Narrators may differ across regional releases and audiobook editions.