As with many other series, I have missed a few
installments of the Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery saga by Candice
Proctor writing as C. S. Harris. Proctor also writes under the names C. S.
Graham and Steven Graham. Proctor has a doctorate in European history and she’s
produced a nonfiction work on the French Revolution in addition to some 30
fiction pieces. Her books invariably have an authentic setting with an
impressive amount of historical detail.
Sebastian St. Cyr is the son and heir to the Earl
of Hendon. After a distinguished military career he returned to England and
London and that’s where the series begins in April 1811, two months after the
Regency was formally declared. St. Cyr has fallen into the role of private
investigator, a role viewed with disdain by the upper class. His complicated
personal life has overtaken the mystery in some of the 20 titles but the later
books seem to have a better balance.
In the 17th title, When Blood Lies
(Berkley, 2022) Harris takes the action to Paris in March 1815, where the
monarchy has been re-established after Napoleon was banished to Elba. The
Bourbons have learned nothing during their exile and they returned to their
overbearing arrogant ways, reminding the general population why the Revolution
took place. St. Cyr has come to the continent now that the war is over to
search for his estranged mother, who lived in Europe for years. He finds her one
night dying of multiple injuries near the house he is renting. The stiletto
wound in her back leaves no question that the death could be an accident.
He learns that his mother was close to Napoleon’s
first wife Josephine and moved in political and diplomatic circles. He fears
she became embroiled in the lethal hotbed of conspiracy and rumors that was
Paris at the time. Napoleon was maneuvering to return to power and no one was
safe from suspicion of collaboration with the wrong side. Which side was wrong
depended very much on the individual.
Harris immerses the reader in the anxiety, fear,
and paranoia of the time and the place, when anyone could be an informer for
the king or for Napoleon. Harris’s extensive knowledge of French history is on
full display here. St. Cyr’s search for his mother’s killer is riddled with his
grief at losing her again, making his work deeply personal. His investigation
often takes a back seat to the political drama unfolding on the world stage but
it doesn’t stay there long.
Harris plots so well and her command of the
history of the time is so authoritative that her writing ability is often
overlooked. What could be a dry recital of textbook details turns into finely
wrought sentence after sentence after sentence.
This is not the place to start the series for
those new to it but anyone who has read a few of the earlier books will have no
trouble picking up the story lines here. Recommended.
·
Publisher: Berkley; First Edition (April
5, 2022)
·
Language: English
·
Hardcover: 368 pages
·
ISBN-10: 059310269X
·
ISBN-13: 978-0593102695
Amazon
Associate Purchase Link: https://amzn.to/3Zvmiil
Aubrey Nye
Hamilton ©2024
Aubrey
Hamilton is a former librarian who works on Federal It projects by day and
reads mysteries at night.
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