Petty Treason

By Madeleine E. Robins.

Previous book here.

Sarah Tolerance, Fallen Woman and agent of inquiry, gets hired to find out who killed the chevalier d'Aubigny. The chevalier is not a fellow who will be missed in the world, as it sounds like he only had one friend in the world, spent money like hell, abused the crap out of his mistress (for a price) and his poor wife for free, etc. When someone bashes his brains in, you can't blame them. However, the wife (Anne)'s brother fears for her life, so he hires Sarah to make sure the killer won't go after her too. Sarah has another fear-- that Anne will be put in prison for his murder. Anne is a terrified, meek woman whose servants are protective of her--she just doesn't seem like the type to kill her husband. Besides, the husband was involved with so many unsavory people, or interesting folks with higher connections, like famed salon-runner Camille Touvais. (It's an interesting scene whenever that lady appears on screen, as she just loooooves to duel it out with Sarah verbally.). So what was he up to, and what had he been doing that allowed him to pay off his debts before he died? Naturally, Sarah needs to resort to her favorite tactic of dressing like a man, and asking her brothel-owner aunt for help in a case. But since the last book, Sarah and her aunt have been kind of at odds with each other, making things awkward. And then Anne is falsely accused by a crooked officer of the law, forcing her to "explode" the man's alibi. Which she does very well.

I definitely enjoy the world of Sarah Tolerance, even if at times it seems a bit repetitive from the last book as to explaining how her life came about the way it is, and relying on certain techniques to do her job. (I guess the reader needed a refresher.) There are some twists and turns, including one that's fitting, yet a gut punch by the time you get to the end anyway. In the end, Sarah, a woman of high principles overall, has to confront her own standards of morality and come to a different conclusion than she has before. I wasn't quite as in love with it as I was with the first one--maybe because the stakes are different here, in some ways higher overall but less personally-- but I still enjoyed it. Four stars.