Soulless is the first book of The Parasol Protectorate and it takes place in a steam-punkish Victorian England with vampires and werewolves (and the occasional evil cabal of mad scientists). Our Heroine is one Alexia Tarabotti, a young woman with a great deal of intelligence and an equal lack of soul. She is a preternatural and this lack of soul enables her to nullify the characteristics or abilities of vampires, ghosts and werewolves. This is an ability known only to a very few people (not even her family or friends know) and it places her in danger when she accidentally kills a vampire at a dinner party.

The individual investigating her is Earl Conall Maccon, a werewolf and an occasional acquaintance. (Well, kind of and acquaintance--Alexia and Maccon met shortly after an incident involving a hedgehog.) They do not get along very well, though this turns out to be due to mutual misunderstandings and some severe miscommunications of the Austen romantic variety. It turns out that Alexia is a suspect in the disappearances of several vampires due to her being “preternatural,” and the suspicion increases a great deal after the party.

It is discovered that the vampire Alexia accidentally killed was not registered either as the member of a hive or as a “rove” (a solitary vampire). The vampire also hadn’t realized that Alexia was a preternatural. (Both vampire and werewolf communities are aware of the existence of preternaturals. Neither community would allow any new member of the community to be ignorant of preternaturals since preternaturals in the past often became werewolf and vampire hunters.)

Soulless