Sunday, May 8, 2016

When Falcons Fall by C.S. Harris

When Falcons Fall: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery by C.S. Harris --- 355 pages

The eleventh book in Harris' intriguing Regency mystery series.  It's 1813, and Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, has brought his family to the small village of Ayleswick-on-Teme in Shropshire, ostensibly to honor a promise to a dying friend. But the truth is that the friend, Jamie Knox, a London tavernkeeper, looked enough like Devlin to be his brother; and was killed by a man who mistook him for he Viscount.  Now Sebastian hopes that Jamie's family in Ayleswick might be able to tell him something more about the mysterious man who may have fathered both Jamie and himself.

But no sooner did Sebastian and his wife Hero and their entourage arrive in the village when Sebastian is forced to put aside his own quest to assist the young and inexperienced local magistrate in investigating the death of a young widow, also a visitor to the village, whose body is found in the watermeadow beside the River Teme, with an empty laudanum bottle at her side.

It takes very little effort for Sebastian to determine that Emma Chance did not commit felo-de-se ---suicide --- a criminal offense in 19th century England. It takes a little longer to determine how she really met her death, but the true challenge is discovering why she died and who killed her.

With Hero's assistance, Sebastian learns that Emma Chance was not her real name, and that her purpose in coming to Ayleswick was not just a sketching expedition. But was there some connection between the dead woman and Lucien Bonaparte, the estranged brother of the French Emperor Napoleon? Lucien supposedly broke with his brother and fled to England for refuge; he and his family are visiting an estate near Ayleswick. When a British agent keeping Lucien under surveillance is ambushed during a meeting with Sebastian, the Viscount wonders which of them was actually the target?

Sebastian’s investigation takes a new turn when he discovers that Emma is just the latest in a series of young women in Ayleswick who have supposedly committed suicide. Ayleswick reveals itself to be a place where greed and injustice have festered for decades — and where someone is pursuing a relentless revenge. What will it take to stop the killing? 

Click HERE to read a review from High Voltage.

Click HERE to read a review from the Historical Novel Society.

Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read a review from Publisher's Weekly.

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