Monthly Mini Review

Where Serpents Sleep by CS Harris, narrated by Davina Porter – B+ I’ve been glomming the audiobooks of the Sebastian St. Cyr mysteries since just before Christmas. This is book 4 in the series. When I started listening, being an inveterate romance reader, I read the blurbs ahead and realised that the enduring love interest I needed to support to get my HEA fix was Hero Jarvis. In this book, things happen (at last) but we are still a long way away from any kind of HEA. I’m currently listening to book 6 and it may well be that way at the end of this one actually – but I have faith!!

I have been thoroughly enjoying not just the romantic threads though. The history in the series is rich and the mysteries are engrossing. In this one, eight young women are murdered and Hero asks for Sebastian’s help in first, identifying “Rose” the woman who died in Hero’s arms and then solving the crime. I was aided by my lack of knowledge about that particular period of English political history; I really didn’t know what was going to happen next. I did go and look things up afterwards and then I was impressed about the way the author weaves historical fact into her fiction.

The narration is excellent. Davina Porter narrates the Outlander series – it’s where I know her from. Her male character voices are superior and her accents impeccable. There are a few vocal errors in this book; sometimes the narrative voice is called for but a character voice is used instead or vice versa but they are small things in an otherwise fabulous listen. One thing has puzzled me however. Magistrate Lovejoy is repeatedly described as having an unusual high-pitched voice but he isn’t given one by Ms. Porter in the series. It does engender a bit of cognitive dissonance to hear this description so often without the concomitant character portrayal.

I have quite fallen in love with Sebastian St. Cyr and highly recommend the audiobooks – though I warn they can be difficult to get hold of. If one can, they are well worth it. If not audio however, I’m sure they’d work very well in print/digital as well.

BUY IT:
AMAZON BOOK DEPOSITORY