Regency mystery, first in the Sebastian St Cyr series.
The protagonist is a devastatingly handsome and deeply cynical aristocrat, unnaturally competent but pretty much done with life when the book begins. This character type is absolute catnip to me, and St Cyr is a delicious example.
The writing is wonderful, very atmospheric, but I found the mystery frustrating--I didn't believe that the author played fair with the clues, and I don't think the readers had a fair chance to guess who the culprit was. I was also uneasy because the author described the crime, a rape/murder, more than once in lurid detail.
Still, I plan to pick up the sequel as soon as it's available from the library.