WHO CRIES FOR THE LOST

The most dashing sleuth in Regency England tracks a Machiavellian murderer.

Physician Paul Gibson, studying the corpse of an apparently affluent man found floating in the Thames, sees that castration and brutal injuries to the victim’s face indicate a vicious attack and present a challenge in identification. This last is remedied by Gibson’s French lover, midwife Alexi Sauvage, who recognizes the man as her husband, Miles. Gibson turns to his friend Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin and sometime sleuth. Sebastian, having recently returned from Paris with a worrisome leg injury, did indeed know the titled, treacherous Miles, and he’s curious to solve the mystery of his murder. Troubling questions surround both Alexi’s claims of marriage and Miles’ allegiances and identity. Harris immerses her whodunit in several notable London landmarks and in full-bodied history. In 1815, Napoleon, recently escaped from Elba, controls France, where Sebastian presumes the crime has its roots. Sebastian’s supporting team, well developed over previous installments, includes his wife, Hero; his sour father, Alistair, Fifth Earl of Hendon, who disapproves of his son’s sleuthing; and Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy. While the author has progressively expanded Sebastian’s world through the series, she maintains a brisk pace, folding in colorful details from past adventures. The path leads through various lords and ladies, a handful of women whom lothario Miles had discarded, and the discovery of additional victims. Suspicion meanwhile lands on Gibson, whose addiction to opium raises additional concerns for Sebastian. Rescuing his friend depends on finding the fiend.

A highly engaging soufflé of historic swashbuckling, intrigue among the nobility, and murder.