What Darkness Brings

C. S. Harris

Mar 2013 · Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery Book 8 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

In this mystery in the Sebastian St. Cyr series, the aristocratic investigator is drawn into a sordid world of greed, desperation, and the occult when the husband of his former lover is accused of murder. 

Regency England, September 1812: After a long night spent dealing with the tragic death of a former military comrade, a heart-sick Sebastian learns of a new calamity: Russell Yates, the dashing, one-time privateer who married Kat Boleyn a year ago, has been found standing over the corpse of Benjamin Eisler, a wealthy gem dealer. Yates insists he is innocent, but he will surely hang unless Sebastian can unmask the real killer.

For the sake of Kat, the woman he once loved and lost, Sebastian plunges into a treacherous circle of intrigue. Although Eisler’s clients included the Prince Regent and the Emperor Napoleon, he was a despicable man with many enemies and a number of dangerous, well-kept secrets—including a passion for arcane texts and black magic. Central to the case is a magnificent blue diamond, believed to have once formed part of the French crown jewels, which disappeared on the night of Eisler’s death. As Sebastian traces the diamond’s ownership, he uncovers links that implicate an eccentric, powerful financier named Hope and stretch back into the darkest days of the French Revolution.

When the killer grows ever more desperate and vicious, Sebastian finds his new marriage to Hero tested by the shadows of his first love, especially when he begins to suspect that Kat is keeping secrets of her own. And as matters rise to a crisis, Sebastian must face a bitter truth—that he has been less than open with the fearless woman who is now his wife.

Ratings and reviews

Love these characters.. have read 5 of the St. Cyr novels in the past 10 days. Holding off on the last one cause I don't want them to end!

Harris continues to keep you on the edge of your seat, not just with the actual mystery, but with the growing relationship of Sebastian and his wife.

Great read

About the author

C. S. Harris graduated Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude, with a degree in classics before earning a PhD in European history. A respected scholar of the French Revolution and nineteenth-century Europe, she is also the author of the nonfiction study Women, Equality, and the French Revolution, written under the name Candice E. Proctor. After years of living in England and various far-flung regions of the old British Empire, she now makes her home in New Orleans with her husband, retired Army Intelligence officer Steve Harris, with whom she has written contemporary thrillers under the name C. S. Graham.