What Cannot Be Said - (Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery) by C S Harris (Hardcover)

About the Book

"On a sunny day in July 1815, thirty-eight-year-old Philippa, Lady McKinsey, takes her sixteen-year-old daughter, Emma, and her young niece and nephew, fifteen-year-old Arabella and thirteen-year-old Percy, on an outing to Richmond Park. But when Arabella and Percy go off to pick flowers, tragedy strikes. Shots echo across the park. Two young gentlemen investigate and find Lady McKinsey and her daughter dead. As the men gaze in horror at the strangely posed bodies of the victims, the other two children come up laughing, their arms full of blossoms. Arabella opens her mouth to scream, but there is no sound. Sir Henry Lovejoy, Bow Street magistrate and good friend of Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, finds himself reliving a nightmare. Fourteen years before, Lovejoy's own wife and daughter were murdered in Richmond Park, their bodies posed in the same bizarre fashion. Lovejoy himself had been instrumental in the arrest of the ex-soldier later found guilty of the killings, and he'd watched the man hang with grim satisfaction. Now he must turn to Sebastian for help as he confronts the very real possibility that he helped send an innocent man to the gallows, and that the monster responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter is still at large--and has killed again."--

Book Synopsis

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.

Review Quotes

Praise for What Cannot Be Said

"Refreshingly fast-paced... Harris manages to keep even the most savvy readers in the dark throughout, while offering up vivid historical color and satisfying twists. This installment ranks with the series' best." - Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"[T]his thorny mystery is a powerful exposé of privilege and inequality." - Kirkus

"[T]hey just keep getting better...Fans of this series have another winner." - RedCarpetCrash

About the Author

C. S. Harris is the USA Today bestselling author of more than twenty-five novels, including the Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries; as C. S. Graham, a thriller series coauthored by former intelligence officer Steven Harris; and seven award-winning historical romances written under the name Candice Proctor.