Who Cries for the Lost

November 1, 2022

In When Blood Lies, last in the enduringly popular series starring Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, St. Cyr traveled to Paris to unearth disturbing secrets about his past. Now he's back in 1814 London, confronting fishy doings along the fish-stinky Thames, though no more plot details are available.

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February 15, 2023
A mutilated body in the Thames is identified as aristocrat Miles Sedgewick, and Sebastian St. Cyr is compelled to take the case. Sedgewick was not a nice man, and he left a trail of clues to possible motives behind him, including his fascination with werewolves and witchcraft. When another, somewhat similarly mutilated body washes ashore, Sebastian must determine if he is dealing with an occult-obsessed serial killer or if the killings have more to do with events earlier in the Napoleonic Wars, which becomes more likely when it is discovered that a list of French spies has gone missing. Meanwhile, Napoleon is on the move toward Waterloo. As usual, Sebastian's wife, Hero, provides able assistance in the investigation, and together they move adroitly between the poverty-stricken streets of London and the powers behind the literal throne. St. Cyr fans will relish Harris' commitment to historical accuracy in both political and physical details, and the unexpected twist of an ending resonates with earlier books in the series, including When Blood Lies (2022). This is top-notch historical crime storytelling.

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Starred review from February 6, 2023
Set in 1815, Harris’s outstanding 18th mystery featuring aristocratic sleuth Sebastian St. Cyr (after 2022’s When Blood Lies) opens with ex-Army surgeon Paul Gibson, a close friend of the detective, examining a corpse recovered from the Thames. The dead man’s features have been destroyed, possibly by a gunshot fired at close range, and he’s been “emasculated.” Those horrors take on added importance when Alexi Sauvage, the French expat physician who’s become Gibson’s lover, recognizes the murder victim as her husband, Maj. Miles Sedgewick, based on a pattern of saber scars on his chest, neck, and left arm. Sedgewick once served on Wellington’s staff, but St. Cyr, who knew him, considered the officer a “treacherous, untrustworthy bastard.” The search for Sedgewick’s killer takes on a different dimension after St. Cyr learns that his Machiavellian father-in-law, Lord Jarvis, may have employed the major on an espionage mission. The pressure to solve the case ratchets up when another mutilated corpse is dragged from the river. Harris does her usual superior job of combining a page-turning fair-play plot with plausible period detail. Both series fans and newcomers will be captivated. Agent: Helen Breitwieser, Cornerstone Literary.

March 1, 2023
The most dashing sleuth in Regency England tracks a Machiavellian murderer. Physician Paul Gibson, studying the corpse of an apparently affluent man found floating in the Thames, sees that castration and brutal injuries to the victim's face indicate a vicious attack and present a challenge in identification. This last is remedied by Gibson's French lover, midwife Alexi Sauvage, who recognizes the man as her husband, Miles. Gibson turns to his friend Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin and sometime sleuth. Sebastian, having recently returned from Paris with a worrisome leg injury, did indeed know the titled, treacherous Miles, and he's curious to solve the mystery of his murder. Troubling questions surround both Alexi's claims of marriage and Miles' allegiances and identity. Harris immerses her whodunit in several notable London landmarks and in full-bodied history. In 1815, Napoleon, recently escaped from Elba, controls France, where Sebastian presumes the crime has its roots. Sebastian's supporting team, well developed over previous installments, includes his wife, Hero; his sour father, Alistair, Fifth Earl of Hendon, who disapproves of his son's sleuthing; and Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy. While the author has progressively expanded Sebastian's world through the series, she maintains a brisk pace, folding in colorful details from past adventures. The path leads through various lords and ladies, a handful of women whom lothario Miles had discarded, and the discovery of additional victims. Suspicion meanwhile lands on Gibson, whose addiction to opium raises additional concerns for Sebastian. Rescuing his friend depends on finding the fiend. A highly engaging souffl� of historic swashbuckling, intrigue among the nobility, and murder.

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