Sarah Monette has the dubious honour of having replaced Robin Hobb in my fickle affections as the only fantasy writer I'll buy in hardback. The Mirador is the third book in Monette's Doctrine of Labyrinths quartet, books one and two of which I have reviewed/admired here and here respectively. Despite the eagerness with which I initially starting reading, The Mirador seems to occupy a rather awkward place in the story arc. There's rather a lot of build up for very little pay off and I was left with a vaguely unsatisfied feeling and only the fuzziest idea of what's supposed to be going on. This was not so much plot related as direction related " I suppose it's foolish to expect narrative sign posts in a series of books themed around labyrinths but, still, reading The Mirador made me feel lost. On the other hand, I'm hesitant of being too critical because of my profound affection for the first two books and I suspect, as with Melusine and The Virtu, the fourth book will contextualise the third to such an extent that my criticisms will turn out to be pointless.

Gosh, this excess of good faith is making me nervous.

The Mirador picks up two years after The Virtu so at least Monette hasn't gone completely George RR Martin on us yet. But nothing much seems to have changed. Mildmay still hates The Mirador. Felix is still wrecked. And they're still not having hot incestuous gay love, dammit. To be fair, I don't think this is likely to ever be the case but a girl can dream, right? The point of this book, inasmuch as I can find it, seems to be setup for book four, which requires sending Felix and Mildmay into exile together, and to demonstrate just how deep the damage done to both brothers by their upbringing runs. The advantage of this is that the book avoids oversimplifications and it is rarely the case that any one thing can be traced back to any other, the disadvantage is that it's as slow as snails on sedatives. It is painful, absolutely painful, to watch Felix and Mildmay's relationship creeping along, occasionally even doubling back on itself or plunging yet further into the abyssal depths of utter failure and misery. It doesn't help that they're both pursuing seemingly unconnected plotlines " Mildmay is trying to work out why his girlfriend was killed way back in book one and Felix is messing around with ghosts " which makes it feel as though they might as well be in different books since it gives them plenty of excuses not to deal with each other.

I was glad, however, to see an increased focus on Mehitabel Parr, first introduced in The Virtu. Part actress, part courtesan, part (reluctant) spy she's just an incredibly cool and entertaining character, and a splendid antidote to those terminally angsty, insecure boys. Like the two preceding books, The Mirador is told through the shifting first person narration of its central characters. After two books of Felix and Mildmay,I was very very ready for Mehitabel, even though Monette's presentation of her voice is slightly assured than that of the other two. The narration, as ever, is utterly absorbing although Felix felt increasingly distant as the book progressed. In some ways, I suppose, he is the most difficult character in that I have always felt slightly unconvinced by his much vaunted charisma and cruelty. This book seems to evade the problem by having most of his exploits in this field related second hand, which is more than a little frustrating. There are only so many times you can deal with Mildmay recollecting an overheard argument and wincing. But Mehitabel's perspective on the two very familiar characters is both refreshing and illuminating.

Like its predecessors, The Mirador is primarily character-driven and, therefore, it seems churlish to complain about the plot or lack thereof. But it really is labyrinthine in the negative sense, in that I found it difficult to grasp where things were going, or why, and what was important or why. Possibly I'm just dumb but there's intricate and then there's incoherent. I am, however, reserving judgement on The Mirador because I'm just not ready to accept that this could be bad until the quartet is complete. This is probably not a good time to come new to the series but, if you enjoyed the other two books and you can deal with a few mild frustrations, this is more of the same. Monette's characterisation is as deft as ever, her world dark, detailed and delicious and her linguistic flair makes reading her a genuine pleasure. There's also lots of sex and swearing. Yay.