≫ [PDF] What Angels Fear A Sebastian St Cyr Mystery Book 1 C S Harris 9780451219718 Books

What Angels Fear A Sebastian St Cyr Mystery Book 1 C S Harris 9780451219718 Books

Download As PDF : What Angels Fear A Sebastian St Cyr Mystery Book 1 C S Harris 9780451219718 Books

What Angels Fear A Sebastian St Cyr Mystery Book 1 C S Harris 9780451219718 Books

Stanley Preston, cousin to the Home Secretary in the year 1813, lived in London, England and there is found murdered, decapitated by two young lovers heading toward a secluded area for their amorous tryst. The aristocrat, Sebastian St. Cyr is asked to help with the investigation of the grisly murder, a task he gladly enters in spite of the risk to himself, his wife and their newborn child. The investigators quickly find an engraved strap of lead near the body, an object related to the death of King Charles by beheading in 1648.
An odd hobby by several aristocrats shocks St. Cyr. It seems these gentlemen have an inordinate interest in collecting historical objects, including the heads and/or bodies of those who died by the axe for varied reasons, all of them stemming from disapproval by royalty or the ruling class. The owners see nothing odd about their ghoulish interests and the reader has a hard time not incriminating each one as they appear throughout the story. More to the point, why was that strap found near the body and what did Stanley Preston have to do with beheadings and these strange characters?
Just when St. Cyr seems totally confused, one of his enemies appears, a man reputed to be responsible for the cruel death of many Portugal residents, Mr. Stanley Oliphant, appears to muddy the waters of the investigation. Not to be daunted, St. Cyr continues in his methodical questioning of anyone even remotely connected with Preston and eventually deduces who is responsible. Will the nefarious murderer be apprehended and justice be served?
Harris’s novel is an intriguing, complex read that is delightful to follow and intriguing. Connection to fame, even if it is through physical or antique objects brings that fame into the owners’ lives. What is perceived to be grotesque is just part of the history that haunted the lives of British subjects in more ways than imagined. Very nicely constructed, C. S. Harris – recommended mystery for lovers of the genre!


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What Angels Fear A Sebastian St Cyr Mystery Book 1 C S Harris 9780451219718 Books Reviews

If you like reading the period mysteries that are really more romances, then you will enjoy this book. The plot is decent, though it does get a little convoluted at times with the various political interests. The characters are pretty well fleshed out, considering how little time most of them have in the book (besides Sebastian and Kat).

What is not good- you can guess at who committed the murders, but you can't really follow the evidence to figure it out, because it doesn't exist. In the end, you get the villain holding a gun giving his soliloquy on why he did the things he did; all that was missing was him twirling a mustache. To me, this is one of the biggest cop-outs on wrapping up a story.

The romance- if you like Harlequin romances, you'll like this, but this book is a showcase in why I hate reading romances. The female is of course some version of a prostitute. This is almost always the case in these period pieces. The back half of the book is more focused on the romance, and you get all the classic stuff- there's a lot of her trembling body, him nuzzling her in various places, and his head laying on her heaving bosom. Ugh. In addition to this though, there is what I consider the gaping plot hole. This is a small spoiler!! Sebastian suspects that Kat might have torn those pages out, and he knows Kat traveled in the same circles as the victim, but he never even suspects that she might be involved in the other crime. You can say that, because he's in love with her, he gives her the benefit of the doubt, but to say that he doesn't even suspect her (or ask her about it), especially when he clearly thinks she might have torn those pages, is beyond stupid. He may not want to believe it, but he would have to at least consider it, and it was too obvious to overlook the possibility.

I would rate this as a good beach read. That being said, I think it has potential, so I will probably try at least the second book to see if there is any improvement.
Some years ago I read the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries and the Monk mysteries by Anne Perry. I didn't read the whole series, though, because by book 5 of the Pitts and book 2 of Monk I figured out what Perry was up to. Although she was great at dialogue and atmosphere, once you understood that Perry was out to unmask the hypocrisy of Victorian Britain, it was always pathetically easy to figure out "whodunit." The murderer was always the prim, religious, conservative person. All the people living in "open sin" were really innocent. But beware the Salvation Army, etc.

So I came into the St. Cyr mysteries with some trepidation. Set in Regency England, six to nine years before Victoria's birth and more than 25 years before her reign, this England is pre-Industrial Revolution (hovering on the brink at best), a land where twenty people live in a room in the poor parts of town and thank their gods that they are still above the ground, as dead dogs, cats, and babies flow through the sewers and women are raped with astonishing regularity.

One of my best friends--a writer with several books of analysis and literary criticism to his credit--once told me that the best mysteries are not "whodunits," but "what-the-heck-is-going-on." This book is a "what-the-heck-is-going-on" book.

Sebastian St. Cyr is a nobleman, son of Lord Hendon. Third son, to be exact, and least-liked of any of Hendon's children, but he was the only son who lived to adulthood, so he's sole heir to his lordship. He's a veteran of multiple campaigns against the French, Italians, and Portuguese, with all the accompanying nightmares. He has his own superpower, too--he can see and hear exceptionally well, and that's one reason he's lived so long (he's 26 or 27 at the beginning of the series). In this first book, a woman is brutally raped and murdered in a church, and all the evidence points to Sebastian. Bored and depressed half out of his mind, St. Cyr figures being arrested for a crime he had not committed might be fun and is willing to go along with it...until one incompetent policemen accidentally stabs another and blames Sebastian. That does it; Sebastian goes on the run, determined to clear his name and find the real murderer. Somewhere along the line he establishes enough sympathy for the murder victim to genuinely want to find her killer.

The story is fast-paced and with more twists and turns than any amusement park ride; the characters are interesting although somewhat stereotyped (there's the adorable thief kid...no, his name's not Oliver, but it could've been; the actress who was the love of Sebastian's life until she threw him over with a manufactured explanation but is now back in his life in a big way; the father who is disappointed in but still loves his son, and the Irish doctor/best friend who's also mildly addicted to opium, a dedicated magistrate who barely tops five feet, and the requisite number of governmental jackasses, truly despicable people). I'm fairly certain some of the language is anachronistic, but not enough to genuinely torque me off. And I kind of wonder if the story is strong enough to hold up to multiple readings; I suspect it's not, but right now I'm having too much fun with the initial read-through. When I finished this one I was intrigued enough to keep reading, so I bought the next book. That's a good enough recommendation.
Stanley Preston, cousin to the Home Secretary in the year 1813, lived in London, England and there is found murdered, decapitated by two young lovers heading toward a secluded area for their amorous tryst. The aristocrat, Sebastian St. Cyr is asked to help with the investigation of the grisly murder, a task he gladly enters in spite of the risk to himself, his wife and their newborn child. The investigators quickly find an engraved strap of lead near the body, an object related to the death of King Charles by beheading in 1648.
An odd hobby by several aristocrats shocks St. Cyr. It seems these gentlemen have an inordinate interest in collecting historical objects, including the heads and/or bodies of those who died by the axe for varied reasons, all of them stemming from disapproval by royalty or the ruling class. The owners see nothing odd about their ghoulish interests and the reader has a hard time not incriminating each one as they appear throughout the story. More to the point, why was that strap found near the body and what did Stanley Preston have to do with beheadings and these strange characters?
Just when St. Cyr seems totally confused, one of his enemies appears, a man reputed to be responsible for the cruel death of many Portugal residents, Mr. Stanley Oliphant, appears to muddy the waters of the investigation. Not to be daunted, St. Cyr continues in his methodical questioning of anyone even remotely connected with Preston and eventually deduces who is responsible. Will the nefarious murderer be apprehended and justice be served?
Harris’s novel is an intriguing, complex read that is delightful to follow and intriguing. Connection to fame, even if it is through physical or antique objects brings that fame into the owners’ lives. What is perceived to be grotesque is just part of the history that haunted the lives of British subjects in more ways than imagined. Very nicely constructed, C. S. Harris – recommended mystery for lovers of the genre!