Who Cries for the Lost

[cornerofmadness]

Who Cries for the Lost by C.S. Harris

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This remains one of my favorite historical mysteries. This one I enjoyed more than the one proceeding it as it was less tied into actual historical events where we know the outcomes (Yes, Napoleon attacking again is the backdrop but it's not wound that tightly up into it.)

Major Miles Sedgewick has been found murdered and castrated and naturally Sebastian is involved with the case because a) Miles and he were in the same unit though he didn't like the guy b) His best friend who functions as the coroner in these, Paul Gibson is suspected of the killing because his lover Alexi Sauvage was tricked into a bigamist marriage by Miles and then dumped once she nursed him back to health.

The formula really does show in this one but yet it doesn't feel like too bad a thing
1. Hero will help and also help Harris shine a light on social justice issues
2. Sebastian will dress up as a poor man and get into a fight and/or get his family threatened
3. Hero's father will be lurking in the shadows and be in the way/or involved somehow but ultimately helps Sebastian somehow
4. Hendon will be disapproving of his son but also ultimately helpful
5. Sebastian's gossipy old aunt will have some clue
6. Ditto Kat Sebastian's ex-lover and actual daughter of Hendon
7. Lovejoy will be there to enable Sebastian (including dealing with any self defense killings) but ultimately not be that helpful in solving the case.

Every last part of the formula is in this but it doesn't feel too tired (Kat does. She has annoyed me for 18 books now). I am wondering if we're ever going to see the other shoe drop with Hero's cousin/step mom who does deliver a boy which might have implications for Hero down the line. Hero is also pregnant again but that isn't slowing her down.

As for Miles, he was interest even if you're vaguely glad someone sliced off his privates. He had a habit of seducing women including friends wives. If they were pregnant serving girls they got whipped out to die in the street. On the other hand he has a deep interest in folklore and witch craft which I enjoyed that subplot. It included the three weird sisters (named for the Shakespearean witches) and their tarot shop.

I also liked that Sebastian's injury from last book was not forgotten. It plagues him in this book and keeps him from signing up to go fight Napoleon (in spite of having two boys depending on him and a baby on the way, which I'm not sure how I feel about that).

I'm looking forward to what comes next for them.



View all my reviews

Lies on the Serpent's Tongue

[cornerofmadness]

Lies on the Serpent's Tongue by Kate Pearsall

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


This was SO close to being a 5 star read, if not with a few pacing issues it would have been. Caveat: you could probably read this book without book one but I don't recommend it as it builds on that foundation.

It opens several weeks past the end of Bittersweet in the Hollow and Rowan, one of the magical James women, learning that their former farmhand, Hadrian is technically a psychopomp they call the Moth-Winged Man (riffing off Point Pleasant's Mothman). This book feels steeped in Appalachian culture and lore (saying this as someone who lives there, very near the Mothman) though this time leans far less heavily on the chapter openers/closers of folk remedies that were in book one.

Rowan can taste lies so when people are lying about things that she knows are true without triggering her lie detector, she's confused. Worse, there's a podcaster/cryptid hunter in town irking her and she's already running on fury over events of last book (such as some towns people turning on them and wrecking the family restaurant). Grandma sends her off into the woods with Vernie, a forest ranger who needs help manning a fire observation station near the mystical (and currently injured) bone tree. Vernie sets her up with a less paranormal issue: wild ginseng poachers who may destroy the fragile ecosystem and cause this plant to go extinct (a real concern).

What Rowan encounters instead are several bizarre things, a young man who won't wake up, animals that don't belong in West Virginia and Hadrian, severely beaten up. She and Hadrian have to team up to figure out what is going on before the veil comes undone between this world and the other side.

There are plenty of good twists and turns in this. Grandma's unresolved search for her missing sister Zephyrine is not forgotten for example. The James women are fascinating and I love them. I enjoy Hadrian too though I think some of the interpersonal details with him and Rowan feel a bit rushed (ditto some of the disappearing plot threads, hence that pacing issue I mentioned)

Regardless I loved where this ended and what it hints is to come. I'll be there for it. Thanks to Netgalley for the arc.



View all my reviews