When Gods Die: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery [Versión Kindle]

In Brighton in June 1811, the Prince Regent hosts a fete at the Royal Pantheon when he finds the woman he planned to make his mistress dead with a dagger in her back. The Prince falls apart so it is up to LordJarvis to learn what happened. He asks Viscount Sebastian St. Cyr to find out who killed Marchioness Guinevere Anglessey. St. Cry declines until he sees the necklace the victim is wearing.

The last time St. Cyr saw the necklace his mother wore it on the day she died at sea. The dagger belongs to Prinny, but Guinevere actually died from arsenic poisoning. Many English believe the Hanover dynasty is tainted with madness and assume the crazy Regent killed his latest whore; some go so far as to believe the country would better off with a Stuart restoration. Civil war seems imminent as St. Cyr considers how Guinevere fit in a highly charged political picture as she didn't dabble in affairs of state only in affairs with heads of state and had no connection to the Stuarts except the necklace.

C. S. Harris cleverly uses words to paint vivid colorful pictures of a decadent era symbolized by its hedonist prince and a country divided like a checkerboard in many chaotic ways. The hero is intent on solving the mystery of the necklace perhaps more than the homicide though he knows uncovering the killer might give him clues as to how Guinevere got his mother's death jewelry. The cast brings out the ambience of the era inside a realistic entertaining whodunit.

Harriet Klausner

I started to sit down and write a long diatribe about all of the historical errors in this book-- errors of history, not just anachronisms. Then I decided that I would just bore anyone who read that wall of words. So this is the short version.

If you don't mind the fact that the author writes a Note at the end to mention that she made up Ann of Savoy and fails to mention that she also made up a lot of other stuff including the fear of a curse against England because George III went mad, then you might be all right with this book.

She does get the Jacobite heir at the time wrong-- it was Charles Emanuel, King of Sardinia (Savoy was a Duchy which became part of the Kingdom of Sardinia in the 17th century), not his brother Victor Emanuel. Charles had abdicated Sardinia but kept the personal title of King some years before the last legitimate Stuart died and the right passed to him by both descent and the will of Henry, Cardinal called Duke of York.

To be fair, the PC attitudes that other people complain about are not out of period. This was a time when people where examining what liberty and rights of man (and even women) meant.

However, the idea that the hero could recognize an accent as from the south in the USA based on his father having spent time in Georgia "in his youth" is entirely too much for me to swallow.

So no, this isn't a very good HISTORICAL mystery. Nor is it terribly good mystery.

If the reader is interested in a contemporary mystery that also works in the death of the Duke of Cumberland's valet, I would suggest Kingdom of Lies by Lee Wood. I recommend the Audible download.

And in case anyone cares (or is still reading), there was an alliance between Goditha Price and James, Duke of York, as mentioned in the Author's Note, but without children-- the Stuarts weren't shy about claiming their children by mistresses so there's is no conspiracy there. Goditha died young, unmarried and childless before James took the throne as James II. The records that remain of her (Pepys, MEMOIRS OF THE COMTE DE GRAMONT. and the Earl of Rochester) are not kind.

I think that making up half royal children for Americans to claim descent from is almost a cottage industry.

An excellent book. This is the second in the Sebastian St. Cyr historical mystery series. Each of the first two books featured most prominently a different strength. In book 1, "What Angels Fear," the setting and atmosphere of the work were just oustanding. In this book I really began to fall in love with the characters. Well differentiated, with fascinating backstories. And in addition to the specific mystery of the book, there's an overarching mystery and story that really makes you want to keep going in the series. I highly recommend this one.