Where Serpents Sleep by C.S. Harris

Sebastian St. Cyr returns in this new mystery. When Hero Jarvis, daughter of the man who considers Sebastian his enemy, witnesses a horrible attack on a woman of light virtue who is trying to escape from the streets, she only barely escapes the attentions of the murderer herself. But when her father resolutely refuses to investigate the death, she has no choice but to turn to Sebastian herself to find out what is truly going on.

From the outset, Hero makes it clear to Sebastian that she only wants his input as an expert in detection. But the mystery of the woman called Rose, who seemed gently born but was being hounded to death by someone, is too much for Sebastian to ignore. Hero's father may think of Sebastian as an enemy, but Hero scarcely finds him less objectionable than that. While she doesn't know about her father's campaign against Sebastian, neither does she like him, so working with him is distasteful to her, but in the pursuit of a killer, someone who nearly killed her as well, she is willing to work with him to find the ones truly responsible.

But Sebastian is also looking for something to distract himself. After the woman he loved, Kat, cruelly left him to marry someone else, he's been tormented by thoughts of her. And the chance to poke Hero's father in the eye (metaphorically, anyway) really appeals to him. And it is for this reason, along with his need to find justice for those who haven't had any, which make him agree to help her.

And despite Kat's absence from his bed, he still sees her on the streets, and needs her help, along with Hero, to bring the true villain to justice. Along the way, he and Hero nearly die in a cistern underneath the city, which leads to them making a risky move that may come back to haunt them both in the future. And once again, the case has repercussions for the nation as well as the people involved. Sebastian, ever the gentleman, tries to keep Hero safe, but she will have none of it, and their working together involves as much sniping as investigation, at times.

But the true villains of the case are army men, who might just stand a chance of taking out Sebastian before he can actually find the persons responsible for the slaughter of not only Rose, the prostitute that Hero approached Sebastian about, but of seven others who died in Magdalen House both before and in the fire that was set to cover the slaughter.. But can Sebastian and Hero escape being cut to pieces by the villains, and can Sebastian save the Prime Minister from death at their hands?

I really enjoyed this book a lot. While it was sad to see Sebastian still mourning the loss of his love with Kat Boleyn for months, he's given new life with this new case, and it was even better to see him return to form. But as hinted in the end of the last book, Sebastian's father continues to hide things from him that will make Sebastian even angrier at him when they are finally found out.

It was quite interesting to see Sebastian interacting with Hero Jarvis here. She's more like someone his father would like him to marry than Kat Boleyn is, but Hero is a bluestocking to the core, and while Sebastian tries to protect her as much as he is able during the investigation, she is having none of it. She doesn't think she needs protection, and won't let him get away with not revealing everything he uncovers to her. Part of me wants Sebastian to end up with Kat, but with the events of this book, that may not end up being possible Even if he finds out the truths about the lies his father has allowed him to believe, his own actions may have forever put the happiness he wants beyond his reach.

With a thrilling mystery and an even more interesting personal life, this book really enthralled me. While not quite so interesting a mystery as "Why Mermaids Sing", this one still more than kept my attention right through to the end, and I couldn't put it down for very long. Highly recommended, both as a book and as a series.