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A review by attytheresa
What Angels Fear by C.S. Harris
4.0
This book takes us into the dark underbelly of Regency England, from royalty to the most impovershed. Even the brief visits to a masquerade ball and Hyde Park are dark, quite the contrast to all those regency romances, espionage thrillers, and historical mysteries. What little romance is present breathes hopelessness.
On a cold damp January day in 1811, while an acrid yellow fog seeps through the streets of London, a beautiful young actress lights candles in the Lady's Chapel of an out of the way church as she waited for a rendez-vous she had arranged. The next morning, her body was found on the altar steps in a sea of blood, having been raped and beheaded. Evidence points to an aristocrat, the heir of King George III's Chancellor of the Exchequer, one Viscount Devlin, Sebastian St. Cyr. Meanwhile King George III has been declared mad and the Prince is to be appointed Regent to govern in his stead within days. The war with Napoleon is draining away England's coffers causing the poor to get poorer while the rich to get richer off the war in one way or another. The end result is not only a powder keg of potential social unrest during this weak period in the monarchy, but political machinations occuring deep in the seats of government and the closed doors of the nobility are attempting to ensure new Prince Regent either appoints a new Whig government backing social reforms and peace with France, or retaining the Tory government status quo in support of the monarchy and the war which is enriching all the Tories. Magistrate Lovejoy is informed within hours of the body being found that St Cyr is to be arrested and brought to justice immediately based on the evidence found with the body.
Add in an espionage ring supplying information to Napoleon, and you have a powder keg against which the only person who seems to be interested in finding out who is the real murderer is the accused Sebastian St. Cyr. St. Cyr undertakes to investigate while dodging arrest with the help of former lover, the actress Kat Boleyn, an urchin named Tom, and a surgeon who served with St. Cyr in the Peninsular Wars. These are all well-rounded characters that I suspect will be regulars in the rest of the series.
The plot takes many twists and turns, with layer upon layer having to be peeled away before the final revelation of the murderer and quite the climactic scene. There are many hints of dark family secrets in the St. Cyr family tree that are likely to be disclosed in future books in the series. In fact, one thing I'd suspected since about a 3rd into the book if not sooner was in a sense confirmed at the end by a comment made during a confrontation. The book ends a few days after it starts with the investiture of the Regency.
The political maneuverings in this are fascinating and add a great deal to the mystery. It is a very violent, depraved, and bloody crime and side of the regency era that is described, which will not be to everyone's tastes. I liked this a great deal and will certainly be reading more of the series. I did knock off a star for a number of plot points relating to criminal investigation that i thought just too unlikely as they were just illogical, which did not fit the character presented of Magistrate Lovejoy.
On a cold damp January day in 1811, while an acrid yellow fog seeps through the streets of London, a beautiful young actress lights candles in the Lady's Chapel of an out of the way church as she waited for a rendez-vous she had arranged. The next morning, her body was found on the altar steps in a sea of blood, having been raped and beheaded. Evidence points to an aristocrat, the heir of King George III's Chancellor of the Exchequer, one Viscount Devlin, Sebastian St. Cyr. Meanwhile King George III has been declared mad and the Prince is to be appointed Regent to govern in his stead within days. The war with Napoleon is draining away England's coffers causing the poor to get poorer while the rich to get richer off the war in one way or another. The end result is not only a powder keg of potential social unrest during this weak period in the monarchy, but political machinations occuring deep in the seats of government and the closed doors of the nobility are attempting to ensure new Prince Regent either appoints a new Whig government backing social reforms and peace with France, or retaining the Tory government status quo in support of the monarchy and the war which is enriching all the Tories. Magistrate Lovejoy is informed within hours of the body being found that St Cyr is to be arrested and brought to justice immediately based on the evidence found with the body.
Add in an espionage ring supplying information to Napoleon, and you have a powder keg against which the only person who seems to be interested in finding out who is the real murderer is the accused Sebastian St. Cyr. St. Cyr undertakes to investigate while dodging arrest with the help of former lover, the actress Kat Boleyn, an urchin named Tom, and a surgeon who served with St. Cyr in the Peninsular Wars. These are all well-rounded characters that I suspect will be regulars in the rest of the series.
The plot takes many twists and turns, with layer upon layer having to be peeled away before the final revelation of the murderer and quite the climactic scene. There are many hints of dark family secrets in the St. Cyr family tree that are likely to be disclosed in future books in the series. In fact, one thing I'd suspected since about a 3rd into the book if not sooner was in a sense confirmed at the end by a comment made during a confrontation. The book ends a few days after it starts with the investiture of the Regency.
The political maneuverings in this are fascinating and add a great deal to the mystery. It is a very violent, depraved, and bloody crime and side of the regency era that is described, which will not be to everyone's tastes. I liked this a great deal and will certainly be reading more of the series. I did knock off a star for a number of plot points relating to criminal investigation that i thought just too unlikely as they were just illogical, which did not fit the character presented of Magistrate Lovejoy.