Competence

The third book in this tetralogy shakes things up by switching the viewpoint character from Prudence to alternating between the Tunstell twins. Each of the twins has a roughly equal share of the page count, but this is very much Primrose's story. Effectively the sidekick in the first two books, she's a clear contrast with Prue, being both practical (despite the barmy plan she comes up with early on) and much more concerned with appearing socially correct. She also, as became clear in the previous book, is hiding a dark secret... or, at least something that a proper and socially-conscious Victorian gentlewoman would consider a dark secret. The reader, not so much, which is part of the fun.

The action element of the plot consists of the Spotted Custard travelling across the Pacific to Peru to help save the endangered local vampires. But the story is really more about the characters, and it's here that it sparkles. Percy isn't perhaps quite so interesting as a viewpoint character as Primrose is, but they both work, and I rather suspect he's being set up for something further in the final book of the tetralogy. Primrose, however, in addition to saving the day more than once, gets a romance subplot that I found worked rather better than the Prue/Quesnel romance of the first two books. Well, actually, calling it a ‘subplot' is rather underplaying it, since it's really the main point, with Prim developing as a character as it unfolds.

In fact, some readers might find the balance off here, especially given the somewhat similar developments with background character Anitra Floote. If you're here mainly for the action and humour - well, there is plenty of that, and a bit of worldbuilding too, but it takes more of a backseat to character development and forbidden romance than earlier Parasolverse novels. Which is not a bad thing, and it's certainly good to see events from a different perspective for a change.