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Summary
Summary
The death of a notorious London diamond merchant draws aristocratic investigator Sebastian St. Cyr and his new wife Hero into a sordid world of greed, desperation, and the occult, when the husband of Sebastian's former lover Kat Boleyn is accused of the murder .
Regency England, September 1812: After a long night spent dealing with the tragic death of a former military comrade, a heart-sick Sebastian learns of a new calamity: Russell Yates, the dashing, one-time privateer who married Kat a year ago, has been found standing over the corpse of Benjamin Eisler, a wealthy gem dealer. Yates insists he is innocent, but he will surely hang unless Sebastian can unmask the real killer.
For the sake of Kat, the woman he once loved and lost, Sebastian plunges into a treacherous circle of intrigue. Although Eisler's clients included the Prince Regent and the Emperor Napoleon, he was a despicable man with many enemies and a number of dangerous, well-kept secrets--including a passion for arcane texts and black magic. Central to the case is a magnificent blue diamond, believed to have once formed part of the French crown jewels, which disappeared on the night of Eisler's death. As Sebastian traces the diamond's ownership, he uncovers links that implicate an eccentric, powerful financier named Hope and stretch back into the darkest days of the French Revolution.
When the killer grows ever more desperate and vicious, Sebastian finds his new marriage to Hero tested by the shadows of his first love, especially when he begins to suspect that Kat is keeping secrets of her own. And as matters rise to a crisis, Sebastian must face a bitter truth--that he has been less than open with the fearless woman who is now his wife.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
A murder case complicates Sebastian St. Cyr's recent marriage in Harris's excellent eighth Regency mystery (after 2012's When Maiden's Mourn): the accused, former privateer Russell Yates, is the husband of Kat Boleyn, St. Cyr's long-time love interest, for whom he still pines. Yates is charged with the fatal shooting of diamond merchant Daniel Eisler at the merchant's London house. Yates, who had an appointment with Eisler, claims he heard a pistol shot at the door before rushing inside and finding the merchant dead in the parlor, where Eisler's nephew discovered him crouching over the body. St. Cyr learns that the unscrupulous Eisler tried to sell a large blue diamond that had been one of the French Crown Jewels, but that disappeared in 1792. The combination of complex back story, intricate plotting, surprising developments, and poignant evocations of the lives of the underprivileged makes this one of the best entries in Harris's superior historical series. Agent: Helen Breitwieser, Cornerstone Literary. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Napoleon and Prinny, England's Prince Regent, both lust after a 45-carat blue diamond. After Daniel Eisler, a gem merchant with a fascination for the occult and a sideline in blackmail, is shot dead in his untidy house, magistrate Bertram Leigh-Jones catches Russell Yates, a homosexual profligate, standing over the deceased and whisks him off to Newgate to await trial. Sebastian St. Cyr, still devoted to his first love, Kat, now in a marriage of convenience with Yates, steps in to prove him innocent. This noble decision not only endangers his own pregnant wife, Hero, but pits him against her father, Lord Jarvis, half the cutthroats skulking around Haymarket, and certain French agents Napoleon sent across the channel in pursuit of a diamond looted from the French crown jewels during the Revolution and thought to have been in Eisler's possession. Was Eisler killed to retrieve the magnificent blue diamond? Was he slain by someone so in debt to him he had to let Eisler debauch his wife as partial repayment? Or did the Prince Regent himself target Eisler to reclaim the diamond that had been pawned by his loathed wife, Caroline? Jenny, a doxy who was hiding in a priest's hole during Eisler's demise, knows whodunit. But can Sebastian locate and save her from assassination and Yates from the gallows before it's too late? A lively foray into early-19th-century politics, treacheries and moral indiscretions, though fans of the series (When Maidens Mourn, 2012, etc.) will lament Hero's relegation to a back seat this time around.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
Eighth in Harris' Sebastian St. Cyr series, this volume is perhaps the best yet, with its air of Regency intrigue and its abashed, somewhat bewildered hero. The story begins with newly married Sebastian, still grieving after the death of a friend, caught up in the murder of a wicked gem dealer whose demise is blamed on St. Cyr's acquaintance Russell Yates, now languishing in prison. Found bloodied and standing over the corpse, Yates needs Sebastian's sleuthing expertise, though it's Yates' wife, Kat Boleyn, St. Cyr's former lover, who begs for help. It's a delicious, complicated tangle made even tastier by Sebastian's bride, the wise Hero, and by Harris' tender treatment of the newlyweds' affection and growing love for one another. Harris' acute characterizations and her facility for portraying the complexities of human emotion are similar to Imogen Robertson's in Anatomy of Murder(2012), while her view of social niceties hiding dark motives conjures Anne Perry.--Baker, Jen Copyright 2010 Booklist
Library Journal Review
Sebastian comes to the aid of his former love when her husband is accused of murder. With a missing diamond, accusations of dark magic, and secrets piling up, Sebastian and his new wife, Hero, will find their marriage and love tested while a killer lurks in the shadows. Historical mystery enthusiasts will enjoy this eighth in Harris's Regency-set series (after When Maidens Mourn). (c) Copyright 2013. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.