C S Harris

"Charming... Four interconnected visits to a world of danger, wit, beauty and genuine romance. Treat yourself!"—ANNE PERRY, internationally bestselling authorA stellar line-up of historical mystery novelists weaves the tale of a priceless and cursed gold watch as it passes through time wreaking havoc from one owner to another. As the hours and years pass, the characters are irrevocably linked by fate, each playing a key role in breaking the curse and destroying the watch once and for all.From 1733 Italy to Edinburgh in 1831 to a series of chilling murders in 1870 London, and a lethal game of revenge decades later, the watch touches lives with misfortune, until it comes into the reach of one young woman who might be able to stop it for good.As much a book of curses as a book of destinies, The Deadly Hours is a breathtaking anthology rich with atmosphere and intrigue that encapsulates the exquisite destruction, heartbreak, and redemption wrought by fate.This outstanding collaboration of authors includes:Susanna Kearsley - New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of compelling time slip fiction.C.S. Harris - USA Today bestselling author of the Sebastian St. Cyr Regency mystery series.Anna Lee Huber - award-winning author of the national bestselling Lady Darby Mysteries.Christine Trent - author of the Lady of Ashes Victorian mystery series.More praise for The Deadly Hours:"A fantastic read."—Tasha Alexander, New York Times bestselling author"What a treat!"—Victoria Thompson, USA Today bestselling author

A brutal string of ritualistic killings terrorizes a city already shaken by economic and political turmoil in this chilling new historical mystery from C. S. Harris, USA Today bestselling author of Who Will Remember. London, 1816: When a notorious young aristocrat is burned alive on a windswept hill popular with neo-Druids, former cavalry officer Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, finds himself plunged into a murder investigation shadowed by tales of ancient human sacrifices and long-buried secrets. The victim, Marcus Toole, was the only son and heir of a prominent nobleman. His closest friend--Sebastian's own nephew, Bayard--claims to have passed out drunk before the attack and remembers nothing. But when Sebastian and his brilliant wife, Hero, delve deeper into the sordid activities of Bayard and his friends, they come to realize that Bayard may not be as innocent as he pretends. Following a tangled trail that leads from a disaffected former soldier-turned-highwayman to a beautiful, courageous journalist and a Jamaican-born fencing master with ties to a radical political movement, Sebastian begins to suspect that Bayard and his friends are being targeted in revenge, by victims who believe they have no other recourse. Then two more of Bayard's friends are killed, their murders staged to echo the ritual sacrifices of the ancient Celts. With the palace shaken by the fear of riots and one horrifying death following another, Sebastian must race to stop a ruthless plot that threatens the lives of innocents and could rip his troubled nation apart.

The macabre murder of a prominent nobleman throws an already unsettled London into chaos in this electrifying new historical mystery by the USA Today bestselling author of What Cannot Be Said. August 1816. England is in the grip of what will become known as the Year Without a Summer. Facing the twin crises of a harvest-destroying volcanic winter and the economic disruption caused by the end of the Napoleonic Wars, the British monarchy finds itself haunted by the looming threat of bloody riots not seen since the earliest days of the French Revolution. Amidst the turmoil, a dead man is found hanging upside down by one leg in an abandoned chapel, his hands tied behind his back. The pose eerily echoes the image depicted on a tarot card known as Le Pendu, the Hanged Man. The victim--Lord Preston Farnsworth, the younger brother of one of the Regent's boon companions--was a passionate crusader against what he called the forces of darkness, namely criminality, immorality, and sloth. His brutal murder shocks the Palace and panics the already troubled populace. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, learns of the murder from a ragged orphan who leads him to the corpse and then disappears. At first everyone in the dead man's orbit paints Lord Preston as a selfless saint. But Sebastian quickly realizes that the man had accumulated more than his fair share of enemies, including Major Hugh Chandler, a close friend of Sebastian's who once saved his life. Sebastian also discovers that the pious Lord Preston may have been much more dangerous than those he sought to redeem. As dark clouds press down on the city and the rains fall unceasingly, two more victims are found, one strangled and one shot, with ominous tarot cards placed on their bodies. The killer is sending a gruesome message, and Sebastian is running out of time to decipher it before more lives are lost and a fraught postwar London explodes.

Der zweite Fall f r Sebastian St. Cyr im nebelverh llten London Der neue fesselnde historischer Krimi Brighton, England, 1811. Die sch ne Frau eines alternden Marquis wird tot aufgefunden - ausgerechnet in den Armen des Prinzregenten. Ein Skandal f r die englische Krone Doch der Fall wird noch verstrickter. Um den Hals der toten Frau befindet sich eine mythische Halskette, die ausgerechnet auf Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin deutet. Schon wieder sieht Sebastian sich damit in einen Mordfall verwickelt. Verfolgt von seiner Vergangenheit untersucht er sowohl den Tod der Marquise als auch seine eigene m gliche Verbindung dazu - und st t dabei auf ein komplexes Ger st aus L gen und T uschungen.Mit Hilfe seiner Geliebten Kat Boleyn und einem ehemaligen Stra enjungen kommt Sebastian dem M rder immer n her. Und als ein Mord nach dem n chsten geschieht, sieht er sich mit einer Verschw rung konfrontiert, die seine eigene Identit t bedroht ... und die Monarchie selbst in Gefahr bringt.Weitere Titel dieser ReiheDie Schatten von Westminster (ISBN: 9783968172347)Erste Leserstimmen: "Schaurig sch ner Mystery-Krimi, freue mich jetzt schon auf weitere Teile.""Das neblige London der Regency ra ist einfach der beste Schauplatz f r atmosph rische Detektivgeschichten.""Ein durchgehend spannender Kriminalroman mit Sherlock Holmes Feeling.""Auch der zweite Fall von Sebastian St. Cyr hat sehr viel Spa gemacht, habe mich kein einziges Mal gelangweilt."

THE FIRST SEBASTIAN ST. CYR MYSTERY "The combined elements of historical fiction, romance, and mystery in this fog-enshrouded London puzzler will appeal to fans of Anne Perry."--Booklist It's 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III's England. Then the body of a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol discovered at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man: Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, a brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars. Now a fugitive running for his life, Sebastian calls upon his skill as an officer during the war to catch the killer and prove his own innocence. In the process, he accumulates a band of unlikely allies, including the enigmatic beauty Kat Boleyn, who broke Sebastian's heart years ago. In Sebastian's world of intrigue and espionage, nothing is as it seems, yet the truth may hold the key to the future of the British monarchy, as well as to Sebastian's own salvation....