Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Cristo, Volume 2 by Mahiro Maeda

Now ensconced in Paris, the Count of Monte Cristo continues to take his revenge on those who have wronged him. He starts with Heloise, the dissatisfied and negelected wife of Maurice's fianceé, Valentine, giving her a potion to poison those who stand in the way of her son inheriting, starting with her father-in-law, who has decided to pass his fortune on, not to her son Edouard, but to her daughter-in-law instead.

But her plan goes awry when a servant drinks part of the lemonade and dies. Her husband, the High Prosecutor of the land, knows what she has done, and decides to put her away into a madhouse. But she's taken precautions against that, sending a certified letter to a solicitor letting them know what she did, and including letters and photographs. Since he has publically defended her and declared her innocent, he will be ruined if she doesn't contact them within ten days, so he cannot have her put away.

He realizes this is so, and pledges to renew their love, and stays home more to be with the family. But this is really only to put her off-guard until he can retrieve the certified letter, which he does. But she commits suicide with the poison before he can have her put into the madhouse.

Valentine is left alone to take her mother's place, but her father wants her almost as an identical stand-in for her mother. He makes her wear her mother's dresses and style her hair in the way her mother did. Valentine puts up with this, but hates it, and when a noblewoman named Madame Cremieux befriends her, she confesses just how much she hates the whole thing.

And Edouard, the child of Heloise, begins to hate his own father for the lies his father is telling him. But is Heloise actually still alive? And what will the cost be for the secrets the Grand Prosecutor is hiding?

A very moody retelling of the story. But aside from the space scenes from the first book, this entire volume looks like it takes place in the 1920's or 30's. while the outfits are more Belle Epoch, but that's quite a far cry from the more science fiction space-oriented stuff the first volume gave us.

I've never read the actual Andre Dumas novel, so I can't tell how closely this version hews to the original, but from what I have seen, it is fairly close, except, perhaps, for the whole poisoning part. It's a bit slow in places, but still an interesting take on the story.

However, it doesn't really move fast enough for modern readers, and can occasionally be a bit confusing. In fact, if you've read the first one, you'll have to read this one again just to remember all the players and names. So, okay, but not especially thrilling.