Dunedin Athenaeum and Mechanics Institute

Books Archive

Month: October 2026

May We Feed the King

By Rebecca Perry

October 6, 2026

She is a curator, who spends her time dressing the rooms of historic buildings to bring them to life. But in the lush private quarters of a medieval palace, she finds herself so transfixed by the reign of an almost-forgotten King that the edges of her life begin to blur.

He is a reluctant ruler with no hunger for power, rushed to the throne after the untimely deaths of his older brothers. But it isn’t long before whispers begin to fly around the court. And with the growing belief that the King is not fit for the throne comes the idea that another might rule in his stead.

May We Feed the King dances between the lives of a historical subject who risks the future of his kingdom and a woman who turns to the past to hide from her present.

The Body and the Blood

By Molly Crighton

October 5, 2026

When organist Sybil Marsden plunges from the cathedral’s loft to the stone floor below, her death is ruled a tragic accident. Only Ivo Hart – a lowly police administrator more comfortable with filing systems than people – senses something amiss. Armed with a single, tenuous piece of evidence, Ivo turns to the last person the city trusts: Halia Knox, the infamous former investigative journalist whose career imploded as spectacularly as her reputation.

Together, they begin a covert inquiry that draws them deep into the cathedral’s inner workings and they learn that nothing – and no one – is as they seem. They uncover rivalries, tensions, and secrets buried as carefully as the dead, but the deeper they dig, the more dangerous the truth becomes.

Someone is watching. Someone who has already proven they can turn a fall into an ‘accident.’ And soon Ivo finds himself edging towards a deadly precipice of his own…

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