1--What is the title of your latest release?
WHO WILL REMEMBER
2--What’s the “elevator pitch” for your new book?
When a duke’s son is found hanging upside down in a pose copied from the Tarot’s Hanged Man, a former cavalry officer must uncover a diabolical killer stalking both the rich and the poor of Regency London.
3--How did you decide where your book was going to take place?
My hero, Sebastian St. Cyr, has been solving murders in Regency England for twenty years now, so that was kinda a given. But next year, he may go someplace quite different . . .
4--Would you hang out with your protagonist in real life?
I would dearly love to hang out with Sebastian. Oh, the questions I could ask him!
5--What are three words that describe your protagonist?
Courageous, honorable, empathetic. I know honor and empathy have both been kinda out of fashion for a while, but maybe it’s time to bring them back?
6--What’s something you learned while writing this book?
Sebastian has dealt with the Society for the Suppression of Vice before, but they really come into their own in this murder investigation. These self-anointed “saints” were determined to rid Regency England of extramarital sex, drinking, swearing, reading romances, advocating for free speech, and “other dissolute, immoral, and disorderly practices.” Yes, they were a real society, and since their kind are still with us, learning more about them was illuminating.
7--Do you edit as you draft or wait until you are totally done?
I edit and polish preceding scenes and chapters constantly while I write. By the time I finish the last chapter, the book is basically done except for a final cleanup.
8--What’s your favorite foodie indulgence?
It’s not very original, I know, but I’ve gotta admit it’s chocolate. Good, organic, free-trade chocolate.
9--Describe your writing space/office!
My office is what the house plans called the “media room”: a wall of bookcases, a big old Australian cedar table I’ve use as a computer desk for 30 years (and dragged back here from Adelaide), a comfortable couch and armchair, and my dad’s old Spanish gun cabinet made into a bookcase.
10--Who is an author you admire?
James Lee Burke. His lyrical descriptions and insights into humanity never fail to leave me in awe.
11--Is there a book that changed your life?
Probably The Prince and the Pauper. I think I was about 8 when I first read it, and I fell in love with the idea of historical adventure.
12--Tell us about when you got “the call.” (when you found out your book was going to be published)/Or, for indie authors, when you decided to self-publish.
I first got “the call” 28 years ago and still remember it vividly. I walked around with a huge grin on my face for weeks and weeks.
13--What’s your favorite genre to read?
For fiction, it’s mysteries and thrillers, but I read more nonfiction than anything else. I will always be an historian at heart.
14--What’s your favorite movie?
It’s a tie between Raiders of the Lost Arc and Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. Before I became a history prof, I roamed the world working as an archaeologist, so how could it be anything else?
15--What is your favorite season?
When I live someplace like London, Colorado, or Paris, it’s spring and summer. When I’m living in places like Texas, South Australia, or Jordan, it’s autumn.
16--How do you like to celebrate your birthday?
A nice meal at home with my family.
17--What’s a recent tv show/movie/book/podcast you highly recommend?
I enjoy Dr. Rangan Chatterjee’s podcasts (I’ve been on a health/fitness/well-being kick since Covid).
18--What’s your favorite type of cuisine?
Spanish, French, Greek, Italian, Levantine . . . I miss the food of the places I’ve lived!
19--What do you do when you have free time?
Garden, go for long walks in nature, spend time with family, do a longer meditation. I try to start every day with a walk, yoga, and a balance/strength/cardio focus.
20--What can readers expect from you next?
I’m just finishing the next Sebastian St. Cyr, WHEN THE WOLVES ARE SILENT, which will be out in April 2026. This one led me to do a deep dive into Celtic folklore and what we do and don’t know about the Druids.
Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery #20
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.
Mystery Historical [Berkley, On Sale: April 15, 2025, Hardcover / e-Book , ISBN: 9780593639214 / eISBN: 9780593639221]
Rich Regency mystery weaves death amid London’s social classes
Candice Proctor, aka C.S. Harris and C.S. Graham, is the bestselling, award-winning author of more than a dozen novels including the Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series written under the name C.S. Harris, the new C.S. Graham thriller series co-written with Steven Harris, and seven historical romances. She is also the author of a nonfiction historical study of the French Revolution. Her books are available worldwide and have been translated into over twenty different languages. Candice graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude with a degree in Classics before going on to earn an MA and Ph.D. in history. A former academic, she has taught at the University of Idaho and Midwestern State University in Texas. She also worked as an archaeologist on a variety of sites including a Hudson's Bay Company Fort in San Juan Island, a Cherokee village in Tennessee, a prehistoric kill site in Victoria, Australia, and a Roman cemetery and medieval manor house in Winchester, England. Most recently, she spent many years as a partner in an international business consulting firm. The daughter of a career Air Force officer and university professor, Proctor loves to travel and has spent much of her life abroad. She has lived in Spain, Greece, England, France, Jordan, and Australia. She now makes her home in New Orleans, Louisiana, with her husband, retired Army officer Steve Harris, her two daughters, and an ever-expanding number of cats.
No comments posted.
© 2003-2025 off-the-edge.net
all rights reserved Privacy Policy