What Darkness Brings (Sebastian St. Cyr Series #8)

by C. S. Harris

Overview

In this mystery in the Sebastian St. Cyr series, the aristocratic investigator is drawn into a sordid world of greed, desperation, and the occult when the husband of his former lover is accused of 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 Boleyn 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 treachero's 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780451418180
Publisher:	Penguin Publishing Group
Publication date:	03/04/2014
Series:	Sebastian St. Cyr Series , #8
Pages:	368
Sales rank:	218,477
Product dimensions:	4.10(w) x 6.70(h) x 1.20(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

C.S. Harris has written more than a twenty novels, including the Sebastian St. Cyr mystery series; the C.S. Graham thriller series, co-authored with former intelligence officer Steven Harris; and seven award-winning historical romances written under the name Candice Proctor. A respected scholar of nineteenth century Europe, she is also the author of a nonfiction historical study of the French Revolution. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and two daughters.

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

Praise for the Sebastian St. Cyr Series

"Best historical thriller writer in the business!  Sebastian St. Cyr is…uncannily clever, unwaveringly reserved, and irresistibly sexy.  The entire series is simply elegant.”—New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner

“Deftly combines political intrigue, cleverly concealed clues and vivid characters.”—Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

“A crescendo of suspense and surprise.”—Library Journal (Starred Review)

“Thoroughly enjoyable…kept me enthralled.”—Deanna Raybourn

“A ripping read...captivated me to the final page.”—Will Thomas

“Harris crafts her story with the threat of danger, hints of humor, vivid sex scenes, and a conclusion that will make your pulse race.”—The New Orleans Times-Picayune

“Harris delves deep into the mores of Regency England…”—Kirkus Reviews (Starred Review)

Editorial Reviews

Praise for the Sebastian St. Cyr Series

“Best historical thriller writer in the business!  Sebastian St. Cyr is...uncannily clever, unwaveringly reserved, and irresistibly sexy. The entire series is simply elegant.”—New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner

“Deftly combines political intrigue, cleverly concealed clues and vivid characters.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“A crescendo of suspense and surprise.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“Thoroughly enjoyable…kept me enthralled.”—Deanna Raybourn

“A ripping read...captivated me to the final page.”—Will Thomas

“Harris crafts her story with the threat of danger, hints of humor, vivid sex scenes, and a conclusion that will make your pulse race.”—The New Orleans Times-Picayune

“Harris delves deep into the mores of Regency England.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

From the Publisher

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.)

Publishers Weekly

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.

Kirkus Reviews