With my head still full of Les Misérables, it occurred to me that I could reread Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch, which in retrospect was definitely a Les Mis riff that I hadn’t known to recognize any of the prior times I read it.
Actually, it turns out that this is the anti–Les Mis. I’d noted before that it does not believe in revolutions. But I hadn’t been able to register before that the idealist who wants to declare a People’s Republic, Reg Shoe, is absolutely an Enjolras stand-in (somewhat unfairly, as neither he nor Hugo was into redistribution of wealth). Poor Reg is also the comic relief and only achieves dignity in defeat.
In addition, the dogged cop is Vimes, not Javert (and it is so disorienting to read this from a cop’s perspective) and the elusive criminal is Carcer (a gleefully unrepentant murderer), not Jean Valjean. And one of the evil torturers has invented "craniometrics," which it’s hard not to see as a (justified) jab at Hugo’s belief in phrenology.
Finally, there are still not enough female characters, but at least those that are present have motivations other than romantic love, and sex work is morally neutral.