Book four for the 'Lady Mechanika' series is another thin one, wrapping up in only three chapters, but it's a strong one too, making very good use of each. It also takes us back to the very first book by bringing in the Blackpool Armaments Company, run by the chief antagonist of 'The Mystery of the Mechanical Corpse', Lord Nathaniel Blackpool himself.

Initially, however, we find ourselves at a competitor, Athena Industries. More importantly, we find ourselves outside Athena, to see an engineer, Benen O'Meara, waylaid on his way home from work and cut ruthlessly in half by a masked and armoured shadow; clearly female, highly efficient with swords that extend from her hands. Lady Mechanika doesn't know him, but her companion, Archie Lewis used to work with him back in his days with Blackpool, so they attend the funeral.

It's here that we meet most of the key players, who all have ties to a particular industrial accident at Blackpool's. Harry Johnson is the only one still there; he's an insufferable ass who steals ideas from all his colleagues. Yaromir Kovalyev defected from Blackpool to Athena with O'Meara, as the thought of working on more weapons horrified them. Philippe Duval was there too, as was Milena Schuler, because her late husband Albrecht was part of Project Sparta too. In fact, he was killed by that project, along with Hisato Hinotori, affectionately known as Walt, and Archie's wife and child. The Schuler children survived but injured; Liesel is restricted to a gorgeous roller chair she adores and Edouard has a metal plate in his head that he doesn't.

Chief Inspector Singh is there too, because he's investigating the case, and Gwendolyn Cain shows up too. She runs Athena and shows up with her assistant Ernest and four veiled handmaidens who also serve as capable bodyguards. Only Lord Blackpool himself is missing of the cast of characters we surely must consider to be suspects, especially when the body count starts to mount. Kovalyev has a heart attack at the funeral itself, though Singh soon determines it murder, meaning one of those present pierced his heart from behind with a large needle.

While the 'Lady Mechanika' series is primarily steampunk right down to its core, its explored quite a few genres already, most obviously action in 'The Mystery of the Mechanical Corpse', Victorian lost world adventure in 'The Tablet of Destinies' and horror in 'The Lost Boys of West Abbey'. This plays very capably as a mystery, because, even though we see the initial assassin from the outset, she's covered from head to foot in a delightful black outfit and thus can't identify her, assuming of course that it's a her. The bustle would suggest that but it doesn't guarantee it.

In fact, when one witness sees her in action, claiming her second victim in Harry Johnson, after he offends and is punched in the face by Archie Lewis, the suggestion to the police is that she's Lady Mechanika. That prompts Singh to visit right at the end of the first chapter to ask some awkward questions of his former colleague. Unflappable as ever, she puts on the tea. He's actually inclined to believe that it's her, not for any particular motive but because he knows she wouldn't hesitate to slay the guilty and because she's the only person in Mechanika City with the sheer strength to slice people in half.

And so we go, the list of suspects gradually being whittled down by the assassin until one of them stands out all the more. I won't say who but I will point out that I was on this train of thought from the very outset. It wasn't entirely obvious from the start but it became more so until I was writing "c'mon, folks!" in my notes. I wanted to lean into Joe Benítez's delightfully ornate panels to point at the character behind it all, because it seemed that clear to me and the way the story, the work of Benítez again with M. M. Chen, evolved only made it more clear. Before you get upset with me for blowing my own trumpet here, I have to point out that I was wrong. At least for the most part.

If the funeral and the first couple of murders are the showcase scenes in the opening chapter, the remaining two add a whole bunch more. Lady Mechanika teams up with Inspector Singh to find a way into Blackpool Armaments in chapter two, so she can plant a bug. Erm, I mean a Lewis Aether Sonic Spy. Blackpool's security is absolutely gorgeous and their wheels are even more so. He even has his very own robo-butler, Mr. Farthingsworth the Second. It's quite the building and Benítez's detailed artwork makes it absolutely sumptuous. There have been panels and pages in each book thus far that are worthy of being framed as prints but even more than usual here.

I won't dig any deeper into the story, because the revelation of every victim narrows down the list of suspects and you should experience that for yourself until the grand reveal at the end. I should underline instead that, while I've called out volumes three and four as notably thinner than book two, that doesn't mean that their respective stories are any less substantial. They're simply more focused and unfold at just the right pace for just the right length. Perhaps these two stories could have been combined into one volume, but they're very different stories that don't even fit within the same genre, other than steampunk. I see now why they're separate.

So, while pointing out that this may well be my favourite of the four books thus far, I'll set up next month's 'La Belle Dame Sans Merci' by noting that its cover art is equally as bright as this one's is dark. I wonder if that translates to the story itself. Somehow I doubt it. ~~ Hal C F Astell

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