Overview

The macabre murder of a prominent nobleman throws an already unsettled London into chaos in this electrifying new historical mystery by the USA Today bestselling author of What Cannot Be Said. The macabre murder of a prominent nobleman throws an already unsettled London into chaos in this electrifying new historical mystery by the USA Today bestselling author of What Cannot Be Said. August 1816. England is in the grip of what will become known as the Year Without a Summer. Facing the twin crises of a harvest-destroying volcanic winter and the economic disruption caused by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the British monarchy finds itself haunted by the looming threat of bloody riots not seen since the earliest days of the French Revolution. Amidst the turmoil, a dead man is found hanging upside down by one leg in an abandoned chapel, his hands tied behind his back. The pose eerily echoes the image depicted on a tarot card known as Le Pendu, the Hanged Man. The victim-Lord Preston Farnsworth, the younger brother of one of the Regent's boon companions-was a passionate crusader against what he called the forces of darkness, namely criminality, immorality, and sloth. His brutal murder shocks the Palace and panics the already troubled populace. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, learns of the murder from a ragged orphan who leads him to the corpse and then disappears. At first, everyone in the dead man's orbit paints Lord Preston as a selfless saint. But Sebastian quickly realizes that the man had accumulated more than his fair share of enemies, including Major Hugh Chandler, a close friend of Sebastian's who once saved his life. Sebastian also discovers that the pious Lord Preston may have been much more dangerous than those he sought to redeem. As dark clouds press down on the city and the rains fall unceasingly, two more victims are found, one strangled and one shot, with ominous tarot cards placed on their bodies. The killer is sending a gruesome message and Sebastian is running out of time to decipher it before more lives are lost and a fraught post-war London explodes.

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Reviews

Praise for the Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries “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.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “St. Cyr is a brawler and his tough sleuthing is admirable. . . . This series is a favorite.”—The New York Times Book Review “Sebastian St. Cyr is everything you could want in a Regency-era nobleman-turned–death investigator: uncannily clever, unwaveringly reserved, and irresistibly sexy. The entire series is simply elegant.”—#1 New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner “This is top-notch historical crime storytelling.” - Booklist “Harris is a master of the genre.”—The Historical Novels Review “The established characters are still fresh and interesting after all these years....Harris—and Sebastian—shows no sign of slowing down.”—Criminal Element “Highly recommended for lovers of historical thrillers.”—Library Journal (starred review) ""This riveting historical tale of tragedy and triumph, with its sly nods to Jane Austen and her characters, will enthrall you.""--Sabrina Jeffries, New York Times bestselling author ""A serial-killer thriller set two hundred years ago? It may sound incongruous, but it works, thanks to Harris's pacing and fine eye for detail. A real plus: the murk and stench of the age only heighten the suspense.""--Entertainment Weekly

Author Information

C. S. Harris is the USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including the Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries; as C. S. Graham, a thriller series coauthored by former intelligence officer Steven Harris; and seven award-winning historical romances written under the name Candice Proctor.

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