Another gripping page-turner from historical murder mystery author C.S. Harris. WHAT CANNOT BE SAID is book 19 in the series which follows the marvelous Sebastian St. Cyr, a nobleman and retired Napoleonic war military officer who investigates murders. Sebastian is such a compelling character. He’s smart and gutsy, and utterly fierce in his pursuit of the truth, even when it puts him and his compatriots in harm's way. This is one of my favorite series, and I eagerly await each year’s new release in the spring. As usual, I gobbled this whodunit up greedily as soon as I got my hands on it and emerged at the other end delighted in the story and sorry for the inevitable conclusion.
Each book can be read as a standalone, but readers will be best rewarded by reading in order, to understand the rich complexities of the myriad relationships between Sebastian and others. The well-rounded secondary characters bring great depth to the stories and enrich the reader’s enjoyment. I especially adore Hero, Sebastian’s wife, and noblewoman, who is a crusader for justice in her own right and a ferocious defender of Regency England’s many downtrodden.
Harris does a bang-up job in her settings. Regency England is lavishly evoked in her writing, and one can almost smell the fetid Thames or hear the costermonger’s cry while reading. The mystery is brutally compelling, and I love how many savage individuals are in the running for the many deaths in WHAT CANNOT BE SAID. I was surprised by the perpetrator, and that’s always so fun to have that lightbulb moment in a murder mystery! There are plenty of satisfying twists that made me grin ear to ear.
A seemingly idyllic summer picnic ends in a macabre murder that echoes a pair of slayings fourteen years earlier in this rivetingnew historical mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of Who Cries for the Lost.
July 1815: The Prince Regent’s grandiose plans to celebrate Napoléon’s recent defeat at Waterloo are thrown into turmoil when Lady McInnis and her daughter Emma are found brutally murdered in Richmond Park, their bodies posed in a chilling imitation of the stone effigies once found atop medieval tombs. Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy immediately turns to his friend Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, for help with the investigation. For as Devlin discovers, Lovejoy’s own wife and daughter were also murdered in Richmond Park, their bodies posed in the same bizarre postures. A traumatized ex-soldier was hanged for their killings. So is London now confronting a malicious copyist? Or did Lovejoy help send an innocent man to the gallows?
Aided by his wife, Hero, who knew Lady McInnis from her work with poor orphans, Devlin finds himself exploring a host of unsavory characters from a vicious chimney sweep to a smiling but decidedly lethal baby farmer. Also coming under increasing scrutiny is Sir Ivo McInnis himself, along with a wounded Waterloo veteran—who may or may not have been Laura McInnis’s lover—and a charismatic young violinist who moonlights as a fencing master and may have formed a dangerous relationship with Emma. But when Sebastian’s investigation turns toward man about townBasil Rhodes, he quickly draws the fury of the Palace, for Rhodes is well known as the Regent’s favorite illegitimate son.
Then Lady McInnis’s young niece and nephew are targeted by the killer, and two more women are discovered murdered and arranged in similar postures. With his own life increasingly in danger, Sebastian finds himself drawn inexorably toward a conclusion far darker and more horrific than anything he could have imagined.
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