Still awake and recovering from his nightmare on that cold
January night in 1813, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin
receives an urgent message from Paul Gibson. A vicious
murder had happened in the St. Katharine's area of East
London. Would he come to help investigate it?
Despite now being a relatively poor one-legged veteran of
the Napoleonic War with France, Surgeon Paul Gibson knows
that he can always count on his friend Sebastian. An
unidentified man has been brutally murderer and his
companion, a woman, is too injured to help. Shocked at why
the man had been killed and then had his heart ripped out,
Sebastian realizes he has forgotten to ask Paul why he was
out roaming in such a bad area late in the night.
Taking advantage of his position and title, Sebastian sets
out to find the identity of the man and interviews people
from his own wealthy family right to the poorest of slums.
As he discovers the man's identity and as more disturbing
murders happen, Paul and Sebastien realize that there is a
much larger political game at stake. Who of all the suspects
is the one seeking revenge and is committing all these
bloody murders?
Meanwhile, Sebastian's beloved wife, Hero, is soon about to
give birth to their first child and he worries about her,
especially when they find out that the upcoming delivery may
be far more complicated than they expected. In a strange
twist of fate, Hero's best chances may end up depending on
an old enemy of his. Could that person really be trusted
with the most precious thing in his life at stake?
WHY KINGS CONFESS is the ninth adventure novel in the
Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery Series written by the best-selling
and highly acclaimed C.S. Harris (aka Candice Proctor who
also writes as C.S. Graham).
WHY KINGS CONFESS is a compelling and totally engaging
suspense thriller that I just could not put down and read it
late into the night. It reads very well as a stand-alone
mystery, yet fans might claim that this intriguing story of
revenge and political intrigue would be even more satisfying
if some of the earlier books have been read. I am quite
sure fans of Harris' books are delighted by the release of
this latest mystery.
With her strong character development, fast moving plot, and
historical accuracy and sense of the time, Harris quickly
develops a complex storyline with realistic characters whose
vocabulary, attitudes and mannerisms are true to Regency
times and to the 1813 setting of WHY KINGS CONFESS. I
really appreciate how Harris, with her strong academic
background, interweaves in real historical events as well as
interesting facts about the times, especially in
relationship to Hero's situation. I fully enjoyed Harris'
notes on her research at the back of the book almost as much
as the story itself. For myself, I know I am very happy that
there will be more in this wonderful series centred on the
Viscount and his brave and intelligent wife, Hero. I
definitely look forward to reading them in the future!
So, don't miss out on this dark and dangerous world of WHY
KINGS CONFESS! Get a copy and have a thrilling read!
Enjoy!
The gruesome murder of a young French physician draws
aristocratic investigator Sebastian St. Cyr and his pregnant
wife, Hero, into a dangerous, decades-old mystery as a
wrenching piece of Sebastian’s past puts him to the ultimate
test.
Regency England, January 1813: When a badly injured
Frenchwoman is found beside the mutilated body of Dr. Damion
Pelletan in one of London’s worst slums, Sebastian finds
himself caught in a high-stakes tangle of murder and
revenge. Although the woman, Alexi Sauvage, has no memory of
the attack, Sebastian knows her all too well from an
incident in his past—an act of wartime brutality and
betrayal that nearly destroyed him.
As the search for the killer leads Sebastian into a
treacherous web of duplicity, he discovers that Pelletan was
part of a secret delegation sent by Napoleon to investigate
the possibility of peace with Britain. Despite his powerful
father-in-law’s warnings, Sebastian plunges deep into the
mystery of the “Lost Dauphin,” the boy prince who
disappeared in the darkest days of the French Revolution,
and soon finds himself at lethal odds with the Dauphin’s
sister—the imperious, ruthless daughter of Marie Antoinette—
who is determined to retake the French crown at any cost.
With the murderer striking ever closer, Sebastian must
battle new fears about Hero’s health and that of their soon-
to-be born child. When he realizes the key to their survival
may lie in the hands of an old enemy, he must finally face
the truth about his own guilt in a past he has found too
terrible to consider....