Customer Reviews

When Gods Die: A Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

In June 1811 Prince George of Wales was named Regent of Great Britain. While celebrating in Brighton shortly before his ascension, a young woman is found dead in his apartments. The Prince can't remember how she got there, much less how she came to have a daggar in her back. Did the Prince kill her? Why?

To help clear His Highness' name, Detective Jarvis hires Viscount Devlin, Sebastian St Cyr, who was cleared of murder charges a few months prior (in the series' debut novel, "What Angels Fear"). Devlin doesn't care much about the case itself; however, the dead woman was found wearing a necklace that was around his mother's neck when she drowned sixteen years earlier. How did she get it? Is his mother alive? And what does the Prince have to do with all of this?

As usual, the mystery is full of many turns and interesting points. I must admit that I enjoyed this one more than its prequel. This may have to do with the fact that I was already familiar with the characters and their individual stories. The main players who survived the first novel are back; Sebastian's on-again-off-again girlfriend Kat, his young street urchin Tom, and even his nasty sister Amanda.

There are a few readers who have felt betrayed by the books for their lack of historical accuracy. Because I have a very limited knowledge of Regency England, this didn't affect my enjoyment of the book. I found "When Gods Die" to be intriguing, exciting, and enjoyable.

Set in 1811 London, full of political intrigue, Sebastian (aka Viscount Devlin) is asked by the close adviser of the Prince Regent to investigate the murder of a woman found in the Regent's company dead--while he fell asleep and doesn't recall anything that happens. Not wishing to become involved in the Regent's female problems nor in anything political in the current climate, he's set to decline when Jarvis dangles a necklace in front of him--an ancient necklace that was last seen around Sebastian's mother's neck on the day she disappeared when he was eleven years old. Of course this draws him into the mystery, and the story unfolds--both the story of the murder and of how the necklace came to be on Guinevere Anglissey's pretty dead neck.

Sebastian, Tom (the street urchin he rescued who is now in his employ as his 'tiger' or horseman) and Kat Boleyn, his lover and actress in Drury Lane, investigate various aspects of the crime and things get more dangerous for them all the closer they get. I admit that I hooked one of the author's red herrings and ran with it and was rather surprised at the solution to the crime and the necklace mystery too. Cracking good action-packed suspense, the first book in awhile that I've been literally unable to put down. I liked this better than the first book, and the gratuitious sex didn't bother me as it was between well established characters.

I just finished reading ALL of C.F. Harris's books and I'm on the pre-order list for her newest novel. I found this book to be totally engrossing and entertaining to read ... and just as good as her first book! Yes, it's a "light read" but fast-paced and I love all the intrigue! I enjoy that the characters slowly reveal their own secrets as you read each book. This is an enchanting book and as long as C.F. Harris continues to write, I will continue to buy!!! Enjoy her books for what they are ... FICTION ... not a textbook!

I am reading the St. Cyr mysteries in reverse order. And a good thing, too. If I had read this one first, I probably wouldn't have hung around for the two or three that follow.

The story was surprisingly repetitive and tiresome. Dear Ms Harris, we know Devlin and Kat are lovers. It is completely unnecesary-and down right ANNOYING-that their almost every encounter ends in sex or pleas for an acceptance of a marriage proposal. They are star-crossed and can never be together. The reader is bored by it, but gets it. And yes, yes-we KNOW that Devlin had strange yellow-almost feral eyyes. I lost count of the times the writer discribed the protagonist's peepers. We KNOOOOOWWW that Devlin is smarter, better, faster than the rest because Harris tells us this over and over and over again.

The mystery itself was convoluted and strangely simplistic. Its a good thing that Devlin cared so much about the murder, because this reader sure didn't. There were just too many characters and goings on that contributed to the lack of cohesiveness that chacterized this book. It seemed that the writer added the cast of characters to make a boring set-up more interesting. It didn't work.

The writer spent so much time waxing poetic about Devlin and building up the cast of characters that she neglected the actual mystery-which was not that hard to figure out.

Jarvis,his daugher Hero and Tom the tiger were the most intriguing characters in the book but were terribly under utilized.

Over all, this book was just o.k. Not as good as the rest, but not bad enough to make me abandon the series. I hope for better next time.

Perhaps because I was already familiar with many of the characters and with the social and political setting from the first book in this series, "What Angels Fear", the second Sebastian St Cyr mystery, "When Gods Die" moved along quickly and easily and was even more engaging. While I still don't quite adore Sebastian as I do Julian Kestrel in the fairly similar Kate Ross series, he makes an interesting detective. The power politics and the dreadful Regent, the future George IV, "Prinny", don't bog the book down as one might fear. The writing and dialog are excellent, with descriptions that are vivid without going on and on. Even my partner, who despises books about 'nobs' obsessed with their attire and social whirl, enjoyed this book and quizzed me about how the Hanover dynasty ever became England's rulers.

So while I think you do need to read the first novel to know who people are and what is going on, this one is far better and more fun.

Is there a genre called 'light historical fiction'? There should be. 'When Gods Die' is fast paced, literate, and historically accurate enough to satisfy. All in all, a quick, easy read.

I'll acknowledge the criticisms from those who found the interjection of seemingly modern issues jarring. I do admit that while I did not find it unbelievable that a black man would own a tavern in that era, I did find the conversations that took place between Sebastian St. Cyr and the tavern owner highly unbelievable. And yet, overall, the plot was totally absorbing and the story itself a satisfying mystery tale. Not the strongest of the St. Cyr mysteries, but certainly not a weak effort. I'd recommend this book.