Blameless, by Gail Carriger

This is the third book in the "Parasol Protectorate" series. I read it mainly out of curiosity, to see if the author would either (a) make me like the male protagonist, Connall Maccon, again, or (b) actually terminate the marriage between the protagonists.

The answer is, unfortunately, no.

There is certainly stuff to like in Blameless: Professor Lyall, Connall Maccon's second-in-command, gets more screen time than ever and remains the most enjoyable character in the series: a quietly effective, fastidious fellow. If Carriger wanted to write a romance about Lyall, I'd read it. Some of the other minor characters are also engaging -- I'm fond of Biffy and Lord Akeldama, too, although they hardly appear in this novel. Ivy Hisselpenny gets redeemed a bit from her bizarre status as clown in the second book. The story is reasonably engaging and hung together all right, though I could've done with fewer random fight scenes. Most of the book doesn't include Connall Maccon, and given how little affection or sympathy I have for him by this point, that's probably just as well: what I did see of him sunk my opinion of him still further.

I liked it better than the last book, but I think I'm done with the series. I'll give it a 7.