Blameless, The Parasol Protectorate #3

Author: Gail Carriger
Publisher: Orbit (2010)
Started: April 29th, 2014
Finished: July 29th, 2014
Rating: 5/5 Stars

Quitting her husband's house and moving back in with her horrible family, Lady Maccon is the scandal of the London season.

Queen Victoria dismisses her from the Shadow Council, and the only person who can explain anything, Lord Akeldama, unexpectedly leaves town. To top it all off, Alexia is attacked by homicidal mechanical ladybugs, indicating, as only ladybugs can, the fact that all of London's vampires are now very much interested in seeing Alexia quite thoroughly dead.

While Lord Maccon elects to get progressively more inebriated and Professor Lyall desperately tries to hold the Woolsey werewolf pack together, Alexia flees England for Italy in search of the mysterious Templars. Only they know enough about the preternatural to explain her increasingly inconvenient condition, but they may be worse than the vampires--and they're armed with pesto.

Well, it's time to sit down and review this bad boy, er... girl in this case. Of course, I decide to start a book blog in the middle of a series I'm reading, so I apologize that this is not the first novel, hehe. At any rate, every book I've read so far in Gail Carriger's Parasol Protectorate series has been absolutely fantastic and the third book didn't disappoint. Compared to the previous novel, Changeless, it had quite a bit of action in it. From Alexia being chased by mechanical ladybugs to vampires and quite a lot in between, the pace of the novel was certainly fast in that regard and I enjoyed it. Considering the pace of the novel's predecessor, it was different since Changeless had a tendency to drag a bit in places. Blameless, however, had a good balance of action and "quiet" scenes as I like to call them. Speaking of quiet scenes...

Going into the novel I was concerned that this would be the book where Alexia wallows and throws a pity party for herself and that would be the majority of the content of Blameless. I was delightfully surprised and relieved to discover that wasn't going to be the case because I'd be really, really upset if that had happened. Alexia is not the type of woman to wallow and pine after a man that's rejected her. She's a lady of action, getting things done, and being sensible about things and that is honestly the main reason I love this character so much. Alexia Maccon is an independent woman for her time but she also works within the etiquette and acceptable behavior of the time period (to a point). For example, there is a scene in the novel where Alexia and her companions need to make a quick getaway in a flying machine. The seating arrangements are less than desirable and her skivvies end up exposed, but given the situation, Alexia's common sense allows her to soak up the faux pas in exchange for being able to live a while longer. She'd rather deal with the embarrassment and keep her life versus taking extra time to fix her skirts. Had one of her step-sisters been with her at the time, the results of their getaway might've been entirely different!

Carriger continues to reveal information of Alexia's kind beautifully. There isn't too much or too little information being revealed about Preternaturals--it's just enough to keep you wanting to read more and get the next book to see what happens! Although, at first I didn't really like the tease I got as a reader regarding the extremist group from the first novel. However, after sitting back and thinking, Blameless is really an exploration of Alexia and her kind and not necessarily a focus on the nefarious underplot of what possibly awaits all supernaturals in the universe of the Parasol Protectorate. In all, if you like Urban Fantasy with bite (pun might be marginally intended), Steampunk, or Historical Fantasy set novels, you'll really enjoy Blameless and this particular series written by Carriger.

The Cold Dish

3.5 out of 5 Stars

Author: Craig Johnson

Publisher: Penguin (2012)

Started: August 3rd, 2013

Finished: July 28th, 2014

After twenty-four years as a sheriff of Wyoming's Absaroka County, Walt Longmire's hopes of finishing out his tenure in peace are dashed when Cody Pritchard is found dead near the Northern Cheyenne Reservation. Two years earlier, Cody had been one of four high school boys given suspended sentences for raping a local Cheyenne girl. Somebody, it would seem, is seeking vengeance, and Longmire might be the only thing standing between the three remaining boys and a Sharps .45-70 buffalo rifle.

With lifelong friend Henry Standing Bear, Deputy Victoria Moretti, and a case of characters both tragic and humorous enough to fill in the vast emptiness of the high plains, Walt Longmire attempts to see that revenge, a dish best served cold, is never served at all.

The first thing that stuck out at me and what made reading The Cold Dish immensely enjoyable was Walt's sense of humor.  Walt is portrayed on Longmire, in my opinion, as an old hardass with a soft and caring inside coupled with a strong sense of lawful justice. It appears the TV series has stayed true to its source material in regard to Walt's core sensibilities, but it was a treat to read that Walt also possesses a dry and witty sense of humor and isn't above a little self-deprecation when he does something stupid. That, I think, is a good sign when a character can call themselves out on their faults and mistakes and own up to them once they've gotten past their stubbornness.

In regard to the murder investigation of the novel, there was a pleasant balance between the present and Walt's recollection/POV of the past investigation that Cody Pritchard was a suspect in along with his cohorts. Craig Johnson also wrote a nice balance between the serious nature of both crimes and lightening tense situations and circumstances with well-timed (and sometimes poorly-timed) humor. In addition to a great supporting cast, each character contributes just enough to the story without leaving the reader wondering why one character got more "screen time" than another. Overall, this lead to a great story and storytelling experience. However, I'm sure you're feeling a "but" coming on and you would not be wrong.

You're probably wondering why it took me nearly a year or so to finish reading The Cold Dish, right? I kind of wondered that myself and I'll admit that there are one or two spots where the story drags a bit and my attention wandered to other books in the meantime. These spots are usually where Walt is wrapped up in thinking on a personal issue that leaves you kind of wondering if Johnson couldn't snip a few sentences here or there and still get the idea across. However, overall, the novel was very enjoyable I found, particularly when the Who Dun It was revealed at the end and I was very surprised by it (and then subsequently facepalming at all the "obvious" signs throughout the book if one is paying close attention). So, in the end, despite the slot spots, I highly encourage to give Craig Johnson's, The Cold Dish a try as it's an entertaining mystery novel.