What Angels Fear

Sebastian St. Cyr, Book 1

By: C. S. Harris

Narrated by: Davina Porter

It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol found at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man - Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experience in the Napoleonic Wars.

©2005 The Two Talers, LLC (P)2014 Recorded Books

Great listen

If you could sum up What Angels Fear in three words, what would they be?

intense, surprising, engaging

What did you like best about this story?

great characterizations, great story line, best reader ever

Which scene was your favorite?

Where he finally cleared himself

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Seat of your pants thriller

Any additional comments?

I will be buying the rest of this series.

A good mystery read

If there were half point ratings, I would have given this 3.5 stars. It was a good book. For the most part I enjoyed it, but it did have a few problems for me. It dragged in parts (to the point I sped up the reader to get past them) and I wasn't a huge fan of the romance. While the whole 'noble detective with a street urchin sidekick' thing is a bit overdone, I did like St. Cyr and Tom.

Those quibbles aside I actually did enjoy the read (and the narrator) and will be reading more in the series.

Well written mystery

This started out a bit slow for me but then it really took off. When a young, handsome man from the upper echelon is framed for a murder, things go from bad to worse very quickly. While being arrested a stabbing occurs and of course he is also blamed for the mishap. His fight or flight, officer training, kicks in and he recklessly escapes into the wrong side of town. While trying to blend in with the dregs of society he finds that it helps him to secretly walk among his peers and to figure out who he can trust and who may be trying to send him to the gallows. I thoroughly enjoyed the relationship between the main character and his newly acquired street rat, side kick. A great start to a series that is highly recommended by my buddy-read friends. I am looking forward to the next book in the series.

Captivating

The story grabbed me from the beginning and never let go. I loved the historical framing (though readers who don't care for any of that may not), and I wasn't sure for a while who was hero and who villain, which makes for good storytelling. In fact, the characters are all imperfect and therefore more realistic. There was just a bit more gore described than I prefer, but brief and tolerable.

The wonderful Davina Porter as narrator was icing on the cake since I already love her from about 400 hours of the Outlander series. Narrators just don't come any better, from pitch perfect phrasing to her uncanny abilities to capture various accents and to voice both male and female characters consistently.

I'm delighted to have found a new series to enjoy.

A new series for me that I must continue!

Anglophile here. Love English mysteries and always glad to find a new series. Like it when atypical aristocrats are in the lead. Young boy Tom is a treasure and the love interest is an independent woman, what else?! Figure if this is first go round for series it will (as has been my experience) only get better. Narrator perfect!