Where The Dead Lie: A Sebastian St. Cyr Novel #12. C. S.
Harris. Penguin Publishing Group. April 2017. 352 pp. ISBN #: 9780451471192.
It’s
1813 and the tastes of some of the upper class in London, England tend to the propensities
of the depraved. When a young, 15-year-old
boy is found dead, a rudimentary investigation finds he has been beaten,
tortured, raped and then strangled by his killer. It also turns out that his younger sister is
missing, and Viscount Devlin, or Sebastian St. Cyr, is absolutely
horrified. Viscount Devlin is newly
married to Honor and they have a child who is going through a stormy teething
period. However, the deep love and
contentment Sebastian feels for them make him even more horrified about the
fact that so many children, including this latest murder of Benji Thatcher,
have been disappearing. Sebastian knows
that this is so because they are poor and of no concern to any of the middle or
upper class. However, Sebastian also
knows he and others like him are determined to stop this child trafficking
depleting London of its youth.
As
Sebastian begins to investigate, he finds one of his relatives engaged to marry
someone of a dubious reputation regarding children or teens. The story is
horrifying but because the perpetrators are upper class and the victims are
poorer than poor their outcome is ignored.
An
interesting subplot provides more fuel for riveting interest, that which
concerns Sebastian’s true origins. The
reader feels compelled to pay attention to details about Sebastian’s
background, but the truth of the matter defies one’s best efforts at exploring
and predicting the truth.
Another
interesting side line involves the high trade of pornographic works of
literature, the most famous being by the Marquis de Sade of ill repute. These books are bound in beautiful cover and
considered works of art, while the producers of such works ignore the sordid
application that such education leads to eventually.
The
investigation behind this mystery goes forward in spite of the denial of many
characters and eventually threatens the life of
many prime characters!
All
in all, this is a sordid story that enables the lives of many poor children to
be saved. Sebastian is clever, practical and yet also
idealistic, believing he can and does make a difference in this old
mystery! Nicely crafted, C. S. Harris!
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