The Marquis de Carabas is one of the most memorable characters from Neil Gaiman's novel "Neverwhere" -- a dapper, charming trickster in London Below. So it's not surprising that when Neil Gaiman decided to revisit the dark magical underworld, he decided to write a story about the Marquis, and exactly how bad things get for him when he loses his coat. This short story rushes along a bit too fast at times, but "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back" has a charming fantasy-picaresque flavor. 
 After being killed (he got better), the Marquis is extremely irritated to discover that his coat has been sold by the sewer folk. It's a very impressive coat "the color of a wet street at midnight," with thirty pockets of varying hiddenness -- and even more important, it gives him a sense of confidence and invulnerability. While he's stewing over this, he's told by a Mushroom man about the person who bought his coat -- but in exchange, he has to take a love letter to a young woman in the Raven's Court. 
 Of course, things go horribly wrong almost right away, and the Marquis ends up in the grasp of the Elephant, who still holds a very nasty grudge over a stolen diary. His only hope for escape is a person he really didn't want to see.... and even escape doesn't seem like a great option, since he then encounters the eerie shepherds of Shepherd's Bush. Will the Marquis be able to think his way out? Will he escape with his life? And even more important, will he escape with his coat? 
 Part of the charm of Gaiman's "Neverwhere" is that London Below is a darkly fantastical labyrinth of the strange and otherworldly, you still find that in "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back." Brainwashing, mushroom spores, overlords with elephant heads -- these things are both spellbindingly imaginative and (sometimes) skin-crawlingly creepy. In an odd way, it makes the dandyish Marquis the most normal person in the entire tale, even with the magically-lined coat with hidden pockets and "buttons that were nowhere nearly as innocent and buttonlike as they appeared to be." 
 And the purpose of the story is expand on the Marquis, independent of the other characters from "Neverwhere." Gaiman gives us some glimpses of the Marquis' past and how he became the man he is today -- not enough to demystify him, but enough to make us see a bit of what motives him. Besides the coat, that is. His passionate attachment to the coat is mildly humorous, but at the same time you wonder if it's a bit of a good luck charm. 
 And Gaiman's writing is on point here -- it's clever and fast-moving, laced with both a puckish humor and the griminess and danger of London Below. And courtesy of the Marquis, there's plenty of nimble dialogue ("You are going to force me to say pshaw. Or fiddlesticks. Until now I have never had the slightest moment of yearning to say fiddlesticks"). The biggest problem with the story is, unsurprisingly, that it is too short. The Marquis' adventures could fill an entire novella, but certain scenes seem to zip by just a little too fast. 
 "How the Marquis Got His Coat Back" is like a fine chocolate -- dark, complicated, sweet with a hint of bitterness, and with a satisfying taste that lingers long after you've finished. A must-read for anyone who has loved "Neverwhere."