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annathepiperThe blurb copy on What Angels Fear, the first of C.S. Harris' Sebastian St. Cyr series, says that if you are a fan of the Julian Kestrel series, then you'll like this one too. And it's really rather on the money. I do like me some Regency-era mystery, and like the redoubtable Julian Kestrel, Sebastian St. Cyr is a nobleman of dubious reputation and a mysterious history. He's got the obligatory relationship with a woman of equally dubious reputation, and the plucky young sidekick off the streets. And this book has your basic "nobleman must clear his name when he's accused of a murder he didn't commit" plot, which, along with politics and duels of honor and chases through grubby London streets, is generally all around fun.
The book's not without flaws. Harris' prose doesn't quite have the same elan as Kate Ross', so St. Cyr doesn't quite manage Kestrel for handsome-and-dashingness, and there's a bit too many 21st-century mores coming out of 19th-century mouths. But it's good for an engaging middle-weight read nonetheless. Three stars.
The book's not without flaws. Harris' prose doesn't quite have the same elan as Kate Ross', so St. Cyr doesn't quite manage Kestrel for handsome-and-dashingness, and there's a bit too many 21st-century mores coming out of 19th-century mouths. But it's good for an engaging middle-weight read nonetheless. Three stars.
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Date: 2007-12-10 02:06 am (UTC)