2021/123: Paladin's Hope -- T Kingfisher

...hair the color of… no, don’t start trying to decide what organ at what stage of decomposition is that shade of red. Pick something else. Something that isn't horrible. ... Smoked paprika. [p. 29]

Galen is a paladin of the Saint of Steel, and thus prone to occasional berserking: otherwise upright, moral, courageous and well-armed. Piper is a lich-doctor (think forensic pathologist) who prefers the company of corpses, has a minor wonderworking talent which he prefers not to discuss, and would also rather not discuss or even admit to having emotions. Earstripe is a gnole, working for the city guards.

Together they fight crime. (There's also a cheering romance, not involving Earstripe.)

Third in T Kingfisher's 'Saint of Steel' series (Paladin's Grace, Paladin's Strength) which typically features some fairly horrific plot elements -- in this volume, a number of clerical corpses who have met a variety of gruesome deaths, and the location at which those deaths occurred -- wrapped in and ameliorated by a fluffy romance, plenty of humour and some excellent characters. I especially liked the insights into gnole pronouns and grammar here: Earstripe is very good at expressing himself. Kudos to the author, too, for the line 'Five men stood .. looking at a corpse. Four of the men were human' -- the fifth, of course, being the badgeresque Earstripe. I like the fact that 'man' is not species-specific, but refers to a sentient adult male. I also thoroughly approved of the Temple's solution to the shortage of trained clerks, required due to a shake-up of the city guard: retired prostitutes, aged out of the profession, retrained by the Scarlet Guild in clerical skills and recordkeeping.

Lots of neat worldbuilding, two romantic protagonists with flaws and secrets (and some difficulty in believing they're worthy of the other's regard), and .. possibly slightly too much of a maze of twisty passages, all alike. Character as well as plot plays out in the maze, though, and the wonders of the ancients are, as usual, rather exasperating. Paladin's Hope was an enjoyable read: I am happy to read that the author plans more in the sequence, and am hoping that the books will tie in somehow to the yet-unfinished sequence that began with Swordheart ...