Why Kill the Innocent by C. S. Harris

Hero slips on the ice and falls on the way home from the poor side of town.  To her dismay, she falls on a body.  Even worse, she knows who the lady is.  Because she was a music teacher for Princess Charlotte, her body is soon confiscated by the Royalty.  But Hero has seen enough to know it wasn't a natural death.  She has a head wound that would bleed profusely and there was no blood to speak of in the snow.  However, the case is closed as accidental death.  Hero and her husband decide to investigate themselves.

Berkley and Net Galley allowed me to read this book for review (thank you).  It will be published April 3rd.

This entire series is very good.  It's set in Victorian times and women have no rights, those rich are hoarding the money and spending it on themselves and won't share with those who need it, sex is vibrant but not discussed and Hero and Sebastian make a good team.  They each have their talents and view cases as assignments and talk about how to approach it.  I wouldn't want them after me.

As always Royal politics and high ranking politicians are manipulating things.  They don't care if the lesser beings in life die or get killed.  If you get in their way, you could end up dead yourself.  Hero and Sebastian are walking a fine line down the middle but if they misstep it could be fatal.  As people around them start dying, you can feel the danger.

The killer is a surprise.  Sebastian puts together her last few days and finds she had been raped as well as burdened by things she learned.  The final confrontation is tension filled and very dramatic.  Justice does prevail but not through a court...