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ABOUT THE BOOK
A seemingly idyllic summer picnic ends in a macabre murder that echoes a pair of slayings fourteen years earlier in this riveting new 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 town Basil 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.
Opening Lines: "I’ve figured out what’s wrong with women,” declared Ben. He lay on his back on the grassy hillside, his face lifted to the wide blue sky, his cheeks ruddy from a heady combination of sunshine, fresh air, and a bota of cheap red wine. Harry swiveled his head to look at his brother. “So what is it?” “They’re women!”
GUEST REVIEW by Sophia Rose
C.S. Harris’s historically authentic Regency Era mystery series offering complex, fascinating characters, and intriguing, gritty plots is still going strong nineteen "must read in order" books later.
What Cannot Be Said is rife with Regency era social injustices: child labor, apprenticeship abuse, workhouses, non-regulated baby farms, sadistic insane asylum treatments, racism, and plight of war casualties and their families. A murder mystery set against this backdrop was not just intriguing, but emotionally compelling.
When I thought the series was to end with the culmination of the Napoleonic War which has been marching apace through the series, I was in book reader devastation, but I was in raptures when Harris announced she would carry on a few more installments to the official end of the Regency Period. Most of all my excitement is due to more time spent with her original creation and possibly my favorite fictional character, Sebastian St. Cyr, and the regular cast of characters who have come along with him since the beginnings of the series.
In this latest, Harris ties the mystery to Sebastian’s friend, the Bow Street Magistrate, Sir Henry Lovejoy’s past when his beloved wife and daughter were murdered years before and a more recent copycat-style murder of Sebastian’s wife, Hero’s dear friend and social justice fighter, Lady McInnis and her daughter. The mystery is personal from the start and only grows more so as Sebastian and Sir Henry work the case and follow the evidence and witness accounts to the shocking end.
CS Harris has never balked at the personality and motive of her grisly murders or the murderer behind the deed. This is never so true as this installment when I had no idea who was behind it all until Sebastian’s intuition mulling over the facts of the case got me there for that stunning reveal.
What Cannot Be Said was an emotional heavy hitter and an amazing historical mystery story. I cannot recommend this series enough.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Candice Proctor, aka C.S. Harris and C.S. Graham, is the USA Today bestselling, award-winning author of more than two dozen novels including the Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series written under the name C.S. Harris, the 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 women in the French Revolution. Her books are available worldwide and have been translated into over twenty languages.
A former academic with a PhD in European history, Candice 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. She loves to travel and has spent much of her life abroad, living 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, and an ever-expanding number of cats. Connect with Canice via her website.
ABOUT THE GUEST REVIEWER, Sophia Rose
Sophia is a quiet, curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants, and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and a loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, baseball, cats, Scooby Doo, and chocolate.
As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. In 2012, she submitted her first book review and is currently an associate reviewer.
Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener allowing her to experience many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction, particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Sorry, no horror...or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.
