BLAMELESS, BY GAIL CARRIGER--character, Prof. Lyall

Another note about this werewolf/vampire series: I recently listened to the CD and fell in love again with Prof. Randolph Lyall, the always correctly dressed and greatly put-upon Beta of the London Woolsey Werewolf pack. His huge Alpha, Lord Connall Maccon, gets ridiculously drunk over a personal crisis. (It takes formaldehyde, as werewolves are not affected much by alcohol.) Knowing that the Alpha is incapacitated, a "loner" wolf comes to challenge for the control of the Woolsey pack, and Prof. Lyall must fight in his leader's place. He's much smaller than most weres, but has skill, speed, cunning, and over a century of experience. During the fight the drunken Alpha Maccon arrives and literally tosses Lyall to the sidelines. Lyall hates being untidy, even in wolf form, and he cleans up the blood "surreptitiously licking his ruff like a cat." Wonderful character.

And the series also has the flamboyantly gay vampire Lord Akeldama, who's invented the Pink Slurp drink--blood mixed with champagne. Now you're all set for the next W-V party. Be sure to get the cravat straight.

SOULESS, BY GAIL CARRIGER

ALEXIA TARABOTTI, with a deceased Italian father, is too darkly complexioned, forthright, and voluptuous for the VICTORIAN marriage competition. As a "preturnatural," she can turn supernatural being mortal with a touch. She has no soul to save for the afterlife, and conquers this deficit with yards and yards of courage, heart, intellectualism, and a strict regard for the manners of polite society.

She is therefore outraged when a newly made vampire attacks her at a party, violating all forms of social etiquette, with his clothing so terribly disarrayed he hasn't even got a properly tied cravat.

In the scuffle, she kills the vampire, a terrible social embarrassment. The very eligible but scruffy bachelor, LORD CONNAL MACCON, Alpha werewolf of the London Woolsey pack, is sent to investigate and helps her cover up the her gaffe.As more new vampires appear and old ones disappear, everyone holds ALEXIA responsible.

As she struggles to solve this problem, she is helped by applications of tea drinking, the flamboyantly gay vampire LORD AKELDAMA, judicious whacks with her trusty parasol, and the increasingly affectionate LORD MACCON himself. Part urban fantasy, part steampunk, this witty variation on the werewolf/vampire theme comes to us through JANE AUSTEN and SOOKIE STACKHOUSE.