Why Kill the Innocent by C.S. HarrisMy rating: 2 of 5 stars
I have read the first book in this series and really enjoyed it. So was very interested to read this book and see what the hero has been up to and how he would solve this mystery. I found myself a little disappointed, however.
The mystery involved quite a bit of politics which at times could get a little confusing. There were a lot of lords and newspaper journalists and Whigs and governesses and I had a hard time keeping everyone straight. Some of the characters felt a bit superfluous, especially with the way that Sebastian goes about "detecting." He seemed to just get some secret information about a "suspect," go hunt him or her down somewhere in London, and then accuse that person of killing Jane Ambrose based on the tidbit he'd just received. Then that person would say, "No! I would never kill her! Didn't you know about _______?" And then it would either go one of two ways: the suspect would say, "That person threatened her/accused her/hated her/etc. and you should go ask him/her about it," or "You have no idea how deep this goes. You should stay out of this before you or someone else gets hurt." And then Sebastian would go hunt down the new suspect and the very same thing would happen: "You killed her because______." And then that suspect would say, "No I didn't!" And THEN as soon as Sebastian discovered ANOTHER new piece of information that pointed to someone else, he was off to accuse that person of murder. It got a bit tedious and repetitious.
I did enjoy the insight in the members of the Royal Family and the descriptions of the Frost Fair. The subplot (? maybe just a tangent?) about impressment was interesting but I'm not sure how that fit in to the story.
Although this was not my favorite Sebastian St. Cyr book, I will not let it keep me from reading other books in the series. I know that Sebastian is a better detective than this and does not usually run around London accusing one person after another of murder based upon whatever information he's stumbled upon that day. I do not think that I would recommend this book to someone who is new to the series, however.
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