A Parliament of Bodies (The Maradaine Constabulary #3)

Maresca delivers plenty of fantastical mystery in the third Maradaine Constabulary novel. The Gearbox Killer, a serial murderer who delights in trapping people inside deadly clorkwork mechanisms, has come to Maradaine. Fortunately, when Constabulary Insp. Satrine Rainey and her untrained mage partner, Minox Welling, are called to Parliament to stop a “monstrosity of machinery,” Minox is able to magically slow the machine and save 12 victims with the help of Dayne Heldrin, an exiled guardian from the Tarian Order. Dayne is certain the Gearbox Killer is Sholiar, a murderer he failed to catch in his last posting. But Dayne and the Inspectors face a tangle of complications that may allow the killer to escape. The intrepid investigators also grapple with rumors of corruption in the Constabulary, widespread distrust of Minox because of his unaligned magic, and a case involving a series of child kidnappings. The only certainty is that the more they delay, the more time the Gearbox Killer has to build another killing contraption. Maresca’s detailed worldbuilding and tightly plotted intrigue will entertain fans of suspenseful fantasy. [em]Agent: Mike Kabongo, OnyxHawke. (Apr.) [/em]