chasing bawa

So I totally forgot I had this until I had to renew it at the library. Busy me has too many books on her shelf. But this was a nice, light relief after reading Ibsen’s A Doll’s House and I finished this quickly and in a much better mood. Gail Carriger has done it again with her third book in the Parasol Protectorate series, Blameless. If you haven’t read any of the series, I urge you to start with Soulless and then go on to Changeless before attempting this one as it’s more fun if you know the back story. Plus you don’t want to miss out all the introductions to the various side characters that make this series so special.

So, Lady Alexia Maccon née Tarabotti is now a social pariah having been kicked out of her house and marriage and accused of adultery by her enraged husband, werewolf and Alpha of the Woolsey Pack, Lord Connall Maccon. Alexia isn’t one to wallow in her misery and is soon on her way to Italy, her late father’s country, to meet the Templars and see whether they can give her an insight into her present condition and being a preternatural. The infant inconvenience is as much a mystery to her as to everyone else, including her husband who has been trying to drown his sorrows in alcohol to the dismay of his pack. Once again it is Professor Randolph Lyall, his Beta, who must keep control of the Woolsey Pack as he tries to bring Maccon to his senses.

In the meantime, Alexia’s friend and confidant Lord Adelkama has vanished when Alexia needs him most. The vampires are out to kill her and she, together with her trusted butler Floote and her cross-dressing friend, Madame Lefoux, must stay alive long enough for her to show her husband that he was wrong.

Apart from the usual gang including Lord Adelkama’s drone, the delicious dandy Biffy, we meet some crazy scientific types such as Monsieur Trouvé in Paris belonging to the Order of the Brass Octopus as well as the sinister and religious Templars who are out to slay all supernaturals and their German expert on preternaturals, Mr. Lange-Wilsdorf who begins and ends all his sentences with ‘ya’. Yeah. I have to say that Carriger’s take on the Templers is pretty interesting but that’s ok as I love everything about the Templers and it’s nice to have them parodied.

My only gripes (I can’t help having gripes about books I love, dammit) are that 1) some of the character names are getting rather too outrageous and long and 2) we didn’t see enough of Connall Maccon and Lord Adelkama. However, we did get to see more of Professor Lyall, so I guess it’s a fair exchange.

So I don’t need to tell you that I’m really looking forward to reading Heartless, right??