C.S. Harris spins an engaging tale of deception, detection
and mystery where Camelot meets the deductive wit of
Sherlock Holmes and Jessica Fletcher in the latest
satisfying Sebastian St. Cyr mystery.
Set in Regency England, we meet this story at a slightly
grissly starting point with the death of the lovely
Gabrielle Tennyson. Yes, she is of that family of literary
Tennysons, smart, lovely, curious, but nonetheless dead, in
a boat at that and her two young nephews are missing to
boot. In a perfect storm of wrong place, right time,
Sebastian St. Cyr finds himself pulled into another murder
mystery just as he is coming to grips with the complicated
relationship with his new wife, the dashing Hero, whose
character I found richly developed and rather intriguing.
The play between the two is Regency-steamy, absolutely
enjoyable and slightly aggravating, I am thoroughly looking
forward to the next edition to see how they continue on or
if they continue to grow together, in the midst of familial
ties, complicated politics and the lure of past
relationships.
Harris pulls a together a story that kept me reading long
into the night and left me hunting for the previous tales to
load into my Kindle. Nuanced and laced with snarky wit, an
intelligent pair of protagonists and nicely paced, When
Maidens Mourn had me thinking about all I had ever heard
about the legend of Camelot, King Arthur and the Lady of
Shallot. Enjoyable as a stand-alone, I have no doubt that
the experience would have been enhanced by prior knowledge
of the characters and situations alluded to into the text.
Fans of political intrigue, Arthurian legends, Regency
romance and thought-provoking thrillers will be delighted by
this unexpectedly captivating text.
Tales of King Arthur and the Lady of Shalott provide
inspiration for this latest gripping installment in the
Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series when, just four days wed,
the aristocratic investigator and his fiercely independent
bride, Hero Jarvis, find themselves caught up in a twisted
intrigue of ancient legends and a deadly family curse.
Regency England, August 1812:
Sebastian's plans to escape the heat of London for a
honeymoon are shattered when the murdered body of Hero's
good friend, Gabrielle Tennyson, is discovered drifting in a
battered boat at the site of a long-vanished castle known as
Camlet Moat. A beautiful young antiquarian, Miss Tennyson
had recently provoked an uproar with her controversial
identification of the island as the location of Camelot.
Missing and presumed also dead are Gabrielle's two young
cousins, nine-year-old George and three-year-old Alfred.
Still struggling to define the nature of their new marriage,
Sebastian and Hero find themselves occasionally working at
cross-purposes as their investigation leads from London's
medieval Inns of Court to its seedy back alleys, and from
grand country homes to rural enclaves where ancient Celtic
beliefs still hold sway. As he probes deeper, Sebastian also
discovers dark secrets at the heart of the Tennyson family,
and an enigmatic young French lieutenant with a dangerous,
mysterious secret of his own.
Racing to unmask a ruthless killer and unravel the puzzle of
the missing children, Sebastian and Hero soon find both
their lives and their growing love for each other at risk as
their investigation leads to Hero's father, who is also
Sebastian's long-time nemesis... and to a tall, dark
stranger who may hold the key to Sebastian's own parentage.
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