Reading Series # 2

 Rereading C.S. Harris’ dark but fun Sebastian St. Cyr series with 18 books so far:

What Angels Fear

When Gods Die

Why Mermaids Sing

Where Serpents Sleep

What Remains of Heaven

Where Shadows Dance

When Maidens Mourn

What Darkness Brings.

And just finished  #9 Why Kings Confess

#10 is on hold

It’s comparable to Andrea Penrose ‘s series- both are good but different. The St. Cyr Series is darker, less wry and less sciency. Both have strong female protagonists and slow burn romance.  Sebastian St. Cyr is a tortured but clever nobleman and former soldier with a moral center. His eventual wife/partner Hero nee Jarvis is a radical journalist and reformer impeccably well-dressed and daughter of the most powerful man in England  C.S. Harris is a historian and this shows.  Both series explore the dark underpinnings of regency  society and are meticulously well researched with rich backgrounds and settings.

Series reads

Just re-read the first in C.S. Harris' Regency St. Cyr mysteries, What Angels Fear. Holds up great! I really enjoy these, http://www.csharris.net/sebastian.php And reading the 2nd in the Flavia de Luce series, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag. http://www.flaviadeluce.com/ And the latest in the Charles Todd Ian Rutledge series, A Lonely Death http://charlestodd.com/ Three different Emglands ... Plus Sherlock and Game of Thrones...

Recent reads

Before the Poison, Peter Robinson, 2011
When Maidens Mourn, C.S. Harris, 2012

I had never heard of Peter Robinson, the author of an U.K. police procedural series featuring Inspector Banks,
http://www.inspectorbanks.com/,
when I saw Before the Poison at my local library.

I was drawn to the cover with its enigmatic picture of a woman in a '50s style dress. This novel is a stand-alone, the story of Chris, composer and ex-pat. Brit. come home from living in the U.S. He's recovering from the death of his wife and buys a house in Yorkshire in a deserted spot only to discover it's the house of a woman hanged for murdering her husband after the war. A story perhaps similar to Ruth Ellis, a real life hanged murderess played by Miranda Richardson in a movie some time back. Chris gets pulled further and further into the story of the dead woman and whether or not she killed her husband, and if she did, why.

The setting is atmospheric and well drawn, the post war history skillfully recreated. The dialogue is well written and Chris is an appealing and sympathetic protagonist. The plot is so complex I kept reviewing it in my mind and it really keeps you guessing. This was a great find; I will be looking for the Inspector Banks series.

I love the series by C.S. Harris about the wolflike nobelman, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, who investigates crimes during the English Regency period. They are wonderfully well researched, written, and hard to put down. Harris, the pseudonym for Candace Proctor, a historian of the French Revolution, writes a series that is part police procedural, part thriller, and part romance. They are written in a serial fashion so plenty of questions are left at the end of each one. Ongoing plot lines involve Sebastian's mysterious mother, his family, and his relationship with his new wife Hero, daughter of his enemy Lord Jarvis. They are no regency romances; the stories are much darker and more mysterious.

When Maidens Mourn, the latest, does not disappoint. Sebastian and Hero, an excellent wife for him, become closer while solving the mystery of the death of young female antiquarian friend of Hero's. The archaeology sub plot is cool and the story satisfying. Can't wait for the next one!

Sub-genres

I try to talk about the sub-genres of crime fiction in my reviews. I  never thought about the definitions of these  before I started this blog (although I had heard the terms bandied about). I only knew if I liked it or not. this blog has really changed my thought process about what I read and why I like it and I never really thought about that before.  It's  niche, sub genre, a tiny part of the reading public we fit within (and can be marketed to!)

With that in mind I did a little research into the sub-genre category and found these handy and neat definitions in the for mystery addict listserve:

Fred Runk's definitions on 4MA. All of these have substantial followings.

I present this here and add  a little (see italics):

1. Police procedurals: police officers, sheriffs, FBI, law enforcement officers in general. PD James' Dalgleish for example, King's Kate Martinelli.  
Martha Grimes' Richard Jury, J.D. Robb's Eve Dallas, Deborah Crombie's Gemma James and Duncan Kincaid, Louise Penny's Armande Gamache, J.A. Jance's Joanna Brady. This is one of the most popular types - some are set in the past, future, or an exotic locale.


2. Talented Amateurs: Like Emma Peel! Agatha Christie's "Miss Marple," Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael, Sayer's Lord Peter Wimsey, or anyone who ends up stumbling over an inordinate number of dead bodies. This also includes non-human detectives.   
I hate dog and cat mysteries; let me say that again! There are lots of these like Diane Mott Davidson's caterer Goldy Schultz, Hank Phillippi Ryan's Charlotte McNally, Sarah Graham's Jacobia Tiptree, Earlene Fowler's Benni Harper, Carolyn Hart's Annie Darling, Susan Wittig Albert's China Bayles, David Skebbins' Warren Ritter, C.S. Harris' Sebastian St. Cyr. Some of these are cosies if they feature minimal violence, cute settings, bunch of friends, and warm community. Some have a recipe or craft component. Historical mysteries often have these kind of detectives.

3. P. I.: private investigators who are professionals (they get paid, or are supposed to, anyway), and not connected to police--Philip Marlowe; Sam Spade; Kinsey Millhone; or Steven Saylor's Roman PI, Gordianus the Finder; or Precious Ramotswe of the Ladies No. 1 Detective Agency.
Sharon McCone, Sherlock Holmes, V.I. Warshawski, Spenser, Tess Monaghan...

4. The Accidental Detective: one who accidentally comes across a murder or goes to the funeral of a deceased friend or relative and inds out there are some strange elements connected to that death.
Agatha Christie's Anne Beddingfeld (about my favorite of her books), Dick Francis one-time heroes, BTW), gosh, it's really hard to think of these...
Note: accidental detectives are one time only. Either they solve the mystery and are never seen again, or they end up in the "Talented Amateur" category when they show up in book 2.

5. Judicial Detectives: anybody connected with the legal system who spends more time doing the cops' job than their own. This includes various judges, lawyers, DA's, bailiffs, bounty hunters.  
Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum, Linda Fairstein's Alexandra Cooper.

6. Technical professionals: medical examiners, pathologists, coroners, CSI types, SOCO's, etc. Many of these also spend an inordinate amount of time doing police work, interviewing suspects, etc.  
Lisa Black's Theresa McClean, Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, Ariana Franklin's Adelia Aguilar.

7. the historical detective--Brother Cadfael, Crowner John, Gordianus the Finder, etc.  
Fred thinks this fit in the above categories - and they do - either as police procedurals (Anne Perry's Charlotte and Thomas Pitt), professional PIs (Anne Perry's Thomas Monk), amateur detectives (Sebastian St. Cyr, Tasha Alexander's Lady Emily, Rhys Bowen's Lady Georgiana, Elizabeth Peters' Amelia Peabody, Adelia Aguilar) but I think it's a significant sub-category.

8. the "real person" detective--Jane Austen, Queen Elizabeth, Charles Dickens, etc. (Stephanie Barron's Jane Austen series, Queen Victoria, and Virginia Woolf mysteries were terrific, I've read ones that featured Bertie the Prince of Wales, Charlotte Bronte, Abigail Adams, Ed Ifkovic's Edna Ferber; I'm waiting for novels with Lord Byron, Eleanor Roosevelt, Al Gore, Elizabeth Taylor... I don't know... Winston Churchill, Bismarck, Abraham Lincoln, Mary Lincoln...


9. the retired "detective": retired cop, judge, lawyer, FBI profiler.....(see above...)

Any other categories I've missed?

10. Spy novels mysteries (like recently reviewed Sally Sin)
11. Others? Zombie Hunters, Supernatural (Vampire) - Anita Blake

Shadows...

Where Shadows Dance
C. S. Harris
NAL Hardcover

ISBN # 978-0451232236
List Price: $24.95
 
http://www.csharris.net/where-shadows-dance.php

Love this series about a Regency lord who hunts murderers and the impressive period detail that C.S. Harris/ aka Candice Proctor brings to what could be a rather ordinary Regency mystery/romance. It has many of the trappings but Harris is always after something new.

I've yet to  ready any fiction that captures the feeling of the period the way the incredible and well researched biography Georgiana: Duchess of Devonshire by Amanda Foreman does. I mean the book, not the weak and inaccurate Keira Knightly vehicle. The duchess was a leading female politician, the Hilary Clinton of her day, who still  had many of the vices of her time like constant gambling, heavy debt,  and numerous affairs but she was still incredibly influential on the Whig politics of the day. A lot of Regency novels, (the immortal Jane Austen's among them), do not touch on the reality of the complex Regency Period wars and politics but Harris does, at least somewhat. As novels of the Regency period, Harris' St. Cyr mysteries are well done and richly imagined. Candice Proctor is a scholar of the French Revolution (as well as the author of several  other genre novels) and it shows in the level of detail and the research.

In the latest, Sebastian (Viscount St. Cyr) has to help anatomist Paul Gibson hunt for a murderer when it is illegal to even have obtained the body in the first place. At the same time, he has to get Hero Jarvis, his reluctant bride, to the altar. So it is in part police procedural, part Regency romance, and part historical fiction about the dark days of the Regency,  the Napoleonic wars, and the intrigue and treachery of those times. I must say I like Hero as a character much better than his old flame Kat Boleyn; Hero is much more a modern woman and pretty tough as well. Enjoyable from start to finish.

 

London circa 1800