What Angels Fear by C. S. Harris

Sebastian St. Cyr, the Viscount Devlin, was deeply damaged by his actions as an intelligence officer during the war. Once consumed by bringing the perpetrators of various misdeeds committed by those on one side of the war or the other to justice, he saw so many atrocities committed by both sides, that he gave up caring to save his heart, and his sanity. Now, he spends his time drinking and gaming, seeking to fill the emptiness inside him.

And trifling with women, of course. One could argue that his heart had already been damaged before the war when the woman he loved more than anything else left him. But this morning, he has another appointment- with the husband of a woman he's befriended, a woman who had been dreadfully abused by her husband. He only became her friend, nothing more, but her husband is determined to kill Sebastian.

But even as the duel is in the offing, miles away, another woman has been raped and butchered in a dreadful and shocking manner. And, near her body is a duelling pistol with Sebastian's coat of arms on it. Given his activities of late, the police are only too ready to believe that Sebastian is her murderer. But, after having survived his dawn appointment intact, when the police come to take him away for the murder, the icy steps of his home are the scene of another disaster: One of the constables tries to threaten Sebastian. but he pushes the constable away, making him fall. The Constable pulls a knife, and the second policeman slips and lands on the knife, injuring himself horribly. When Sebastian tries to help, the constable who drew the knife blames the second man's injury on Sebastian.

Sebastian is forced to flee into the streets, where he looks for shelter- finding it finally in a grimy inn where he meets a young street-boy named Tom, who at first tries to steal Sebastian's purse, but is foiled by Sebastian, who gives him some money to eat anyway. This endears him to Tom, who from then on decides to work with and help Sebastian clear his name.

And that is Sebastian's aim at first, to simply clear his name. But as he continues to investigate the circumstances surrounding the death of the woman, Rachel York, he slowly comes out of the cruel lack of compassion he had been forced to by the Penninsular war, and comes to desire justice for the dead woman. Along with this return of a need for justice, he finds himself reconnecting with Kat Deveraux, the woman he loved more than anything, and much to his own astonishment, still does. But can they still find happiness when he finds out that while he fought for England, his Irish lover has been spying for the French?

Soon, Sebastian finds that while he knows he didn't kill Rachel York, she was deeply involved with members of his own family, including his father. How can he demand justice if one of his own family is to blame for the murder? Is blood and sentiment more important to Sebastian than justice? Or is justice more important than both? What will be the cost to Sebastian and his family to solve these murders and clear Sebastian's name?

I liked this book. Some parts of it are more than a little unbelievable, such as how Sebastian is able to so easily elude the police time and again when investigating the murder, but the action carries you along so swiftly that at the time it is happening, you don't question it, because the story is carrying you along like a rushing river. I'll also mention here that the hero is affected by a Welsh Genetic Disease known as Bithil Syndrome (I can't say "suffers from", since he doesn't suffer) that has his eyes be yellow, like that of a wolf and grants him superior hearing and vision, plus heightened night vision- as well as a malformed veretbrae in his back. All this is revealed in the Author's notes- though we are told of his eyes, hearing and vision, the condition isn't named in the story. And I'll cut off comment by saying that the author, on her website, has already revealed that the information about this condition isn't available on the internet, but she did hear about it from a researcher.

Whether the condition exists or not, we aren't told if that vertebrae affects him or how, since he seems to do everything very easily, but the first four parts of his genetic mutation are used to great effect in the book, both in inciting comment from others and helping Sebastian in his quest. I found the story to be very good and effective, a cracking good read that won't make you think too much about the iffy parts while it gallops towards a horrifyingly effective ending.

I liked this book and I will definitely read more in this series, and if you like a good mystery with a hero by turns mysterious and engaging, you'll probably end up enjoying it as well. This myatery grabs you by the lapels and won't let you go until you have read the whole thing. And after you're done, you'll want to read them all. Highly recommended.