Heartless

A ghost warns Alexia Maccon, the soulless woman who is the Queen's acting muhjah, that someone intends to kill Queen Victoria. Alexia, who is expecting a baby, sets out to find out who is behind the plot.

She is ambushed in a London street by a horde of zombie porcupines, her parasol fails her, and her husband, the werewolf Conall Maccon, has to drive them off. Her sister Felicity has moved in, and the investigation leads into her husband's past. The fourth Parasol Protectorate novel by Gail Carriger, a comic steampunk fantasy.