The grisly murder of a
West Indies slave owner and the reappearance of a dangerous enemy from
Sebastian St. Cyr’s past combine to put C. S. Harris’s “troubled but
compelling antihero” (Booklist) to the ultimate test in this taut,
thrilling mystery.
London, 1813. The vicious decapitation of
Stanley Preston, a wealthy, socially ambitious plantation owner, at
Bloody Bridge draws Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, into a macabre
and increasingly perilous investigation. The discovery near the body of
an aged lead coffin strap bearing the inscription King Charles, 1648
suggests a link between this killing and the beheading of the deposed
seventeenth-century Stuart monarch. Equally troubling, the victim’s
kinship to the current Home Secretary draws the notice of Sebastian’s
powerful father-in-law, Lord Jarvis, who will exploit any means to
pursue his own clandestine ends.
Working in concert with his
fiercely independent wife, Hero, Sebastian finds his inquiries taking
him from the wretched back alleys of Fish Street Hill to the glittering
ballrooms of Mayfair as he amasses a list of suspects who range from an
eccentric Chelsea curiosity collector to the brother of an unassuming
but brilliantly observant spinster named Jane Austen.
But as one
brutal murder follows another, it is the connection between the victims
and ruthless former army officer Sinclair, Lord Oliphant, that
dramatically raises the stakes. Once, Oliphant nearly destroyed
Sebastian in a horrific wartime act of carnage and betrayal. Now the
vindictive former colonel might well pose a threat not only to Sebastian
but to everything—and everyone—Sebastian holds most dear.
Description:
The grisly murder of a West Indies slave owner and the reappearance of a dangerous enemy from Sebastian St. Cyr’s past combine to put C. S. Harris’s “troubled but compelling antihero” (Booklist) to the ultimate test in this taut, thrilling mystery.London, 1813. The vicious decapitation of Stanley Preston, a wealthy, socially ambitious plantation owner, at Bloody Bridge draws Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, into a macabre and increasingly perilous investigation. The discovery near the body of an aged lead coffin strap bearing the inscription King Charles, 1648 suggests a link between this killing and the beheading of the deposed seventeenth-century Stuart monarch. Equally troubling, the victim’s kinship to the current Home Secretary draws the notice of Sebastian’s powerful father-in-law, Lord Jarvis, who will exploit any means to pursue his own clandestine ends.
Working in concert with his fiercely independent wife, Hero, Sebastian finds his inquiries taking him from the wretched back alleys of Fish Street Hill to the glittering ballrooms of Mayfair as he amasses a list of suspects who range from an eccentric Chelsea curiosity collector to the brother of an unassuming but brilliantly observant spinster named Jane Austen.
But as one brutal murder follows another, it is the connection between the victims and ruthless former army officer Sinclair, Lord Oliphant, that dramatically raises the stakes. Once, Oliphant nearly destroyed Sebastian in a horrific wartime act of carnage and betrayal. Now the vindictive former colonel might well pose a threat not only to Sebastian but to everything—and everyone—Sebastian holds most dear.