Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Some years ago I read the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt mysteries and the Monk mysteries by Anne Perry. I didn't read the whole series, though, because by book 5 of the Pitts and book 2 of Monk I figured out what Perry was up to. Although she was great at dialogue and atmosphere, once you understood that Perry was out to unmask the hypocrisy of Victorian Britain, it was always pathetically easy to figure out "whodunit." The murderer was always the prim, religious, conservative person. All the people living in "open sin" were really innocent. But beware the Salvation Army, etc. So I came into the St. Cyr mysteries with some trepidation. Set in Regency England, six to nine years before Victoria's birth and more than 25 years before her reign, this England is pre-Industrial Revolution (hovering on the brink at best), a land where twenty people live in a room in the poor parts of town and thank their gods that they are still above the ground, as dead dogs, cats, and babies flow through the sewers and women are raped with astonishing regularity. One of my best friends--a writer with several books of analysis and literary criticism to his credit--once told me that the best mysteries are not "whodunits," but "what-the-heck-is-going-on." This book is a "what-the-heck-is-going-on" book. Sebastian St. Cyr is a nobleman, son of Lord Hendon. Third son, to be exact, and least-liked of any of Hendon's children, but he was the only son who lived to adulthood, so he's sole heir to his lordship. He's a veteran of multiple campaigns against the French, Italians, and Portuguese, with all the accompanying nightmares. He has his own superpower, too--he can see and hear exceptionally well, and that's one reason he's lived so long (he's 26 or 27 at the beginning of the series). In this first book, a woman is brutally raped and murdered in a church, and all the evidence points to Sebastian. Bored and depressed half out of his mind, St. Cyr figures being arrested for a crime he had not committed might be fun and is willing to go along with it...until one incompetent policemen accidentally stabs another and blames Sebastian. That does it; Sebastian goes on the run, determined to clear his name and find the real murderer. Somewhere along the line he establishes enough sympathy for the murder victim to genuinely want to find her killer. The story is fast-paced and with more twists and turns than any amusement park ride; the characters are interesting although somewhat stereotyped (there's the adorable thief kid...no, his name's not Oliver, but it could've been; the actress who was the love of Sebastian's life until she threw him over with a manufactured explanation but is now back in his life in a big way; the father who is disappointed in but still loves his son, and the Irish doctor/best friend who's also mildly addicted to opium, a dedicated magistrate who barely tops five feet, and the requisite number of governmental jackasses, truly despicable people). I'm fairly certain some of the language is anachronistic, but not enough to genuinely torque me off. And I kind of wonder if the story is strong enough to hold up to multiple readings; I suspect it's not, but right now I'm having too much fun with the initial read-through. When I finished this one I was intrigued enough to keep reading, so I bought the next book. That's a good enough recommendation.