Where Serpents Sleep

Where Serpents Sleep (2008) C.S. Harris

Now we reach the point where I started buying this series in hardback.

And I hate hardback books.

The fourth Sebastian St. Cyr book discovers Sebastian working with someone entirely unexpected: Hero Jarvis.

A home for reformed fallen doves (ie women who want to escape prostitution) is burned to the ground, and all the women within murdered. One woman dies in Hero’s arms, and this drives her–against her father’s orders–to try and discover who the woman was and why she (and the other women) were murdered.

The dead woman is obviously of high birth, which is part of what catches Hero’s attention. So she turns to Sebastian to help her discover who she was. Unfortunately, men who would murder seven women in cold blood and burn their house around their bodies also won’t hesitate to take out any other possible witnesses, including the daughter of Lord Jarvis.

There is a Pivotal Event in this book, that changes the lives of both Sebastian and Hero, and will have repercussions for the rest of the series. Strangely, I’d built The Event up in my memory larger than it was in the book. Sure, it was shocking, but it was only a few pages–it hardly seemed the momentous Event it would become.

I do so love the random glimpses into life in the early 1800s.

Sebastian hid a smile. “Brewing boot police, is he?”
…
Boot polish was serious business.
…
The air in the kitchen was redolent with the scent of hot beeswax and resin.

And then more bits of the process are dropped throughout the next several paragraphs. It’s odd to think that something you can pick up at the store for a couple dollars was something that was once made by hand–from secret recipes.

And of course the use of arsenic powder. “(T)here’s no denying it dos give one the whitest skin.” Yeah, women used arsenic powder to remain pale. (Makes tanning beds seem almost harmless in comparison.)

There’s also a good bit about the Quakers, and how they were viewed by English society at the time (not very well).

“We believe that true religion is a personal encounter with God rather than a matter of ritual and ceremony, and that all aspects of life are sacramental. Therefore, no one day or place or activity is any more spiritual than any other.

They were quite truly harmless, which is why the venom directed at them seems all the stranger.

And then there was a bit that would be familiar to many from Appalachia (and many other parts of the world).

Sebastian studied the man’s smooth face. He had a faint blue line, like a tattoo, that ran across his forehead. Sebastian had seen marks like that before, on miners. Coal dust settled into healing cuts, leaving a mark that never disappeared.

Interesting term:
ape leader: An old maid’s punishment after death, for neglecting to increase and multiply, was said to be the leading of apes in Hell.

Also: I absolutely adore this cover. It’s gorgeous and absolutely perfect.

It was another enjoyable read, although I wish I could find the eBooks less expensive, because I really do not love reading hardback books, and the rest of the series is in hardback.

Woe is me.
Rating: 8/10

Published by Obsidian

 
 

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