Purity of Blood '' is the second installment to be translated -LRB- last year 's '' Captain Alatriste '' was the first -RRB- in a series that cheekily attempts to do for 17th-century Spain what one of Perez - Reverte 's literary heroes , Alexandre Dumas , did for 17th-century France in the '' The Three Musketeers '' and its sequels .