What Cannot Be Said

Sebastian St. Cyr Mysteries, Book 19

By: C.S. Harris

Narrated by: Amy Scanlon

Length: 11 hrs and 43 mins

Publisher's summary

A seemingly idyllic picnic ends in a macabre murder that echoes a pair of slayings fourteen years earlier in this riveting new historical mystery from the USA Today bestselling author of Who Cries for the Lost.

July 1815: The Prince Regent’s grandiose plans to celebrate Napoléon’s recent defeat at Waterloo are thrown into turmoil when Lady McInnis and her daughter Emma are found brutally murdered in Richmond Park, their bodies posed in a chilling imitation of the stone effigies once found atop medieval tombs. Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy immediately turns to his friend Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, for help with the investigation. For, as Devlin discovers, Lovejoy’s own wife and daughter were also murdered in Richmond Park, their bodies posed in the same bizarre postures.

A traumatized ex-soldier was hanged for their killings. So is London now confronting a malicious copyist? Or did Lovejoy help send an innocent man to the gallows?

Aided by his wife, Hero, who knew Lady McInnis from her work with poor orphans, Devlin finds himself exploring a host of unsavory characters, from a vicious chimney sweep to a smiling but decidedly lethal baby farmer.

Also coming under increasing scrutiny is Sir Ivo McInnis himself, along with a wounded Waterloo veteran—who might have been Laura McInnis’s lover—and a charismatic young violinist who moonlights as a fencing master and might have formed a dangerous relationship with Emma. But when Sebastian’s investigation turns toward man-about-town Basil Rhodes, he quickly draws the fury of the Palace, for Rhodes is well known as the Regent’s favorite illegitimate son.

Then Lady McInnis’s young niece and nephew are targeted by the killer, and two more women are discovered murdered and arranged in similar postures. With his own life increasingly in danger, Sebastian finds himself drawn inexorably toward a conclusion far darker and more horrific than anything he could have imagined.

©2024 Two Talers, LLC (P)2024 Recorded Books

Plot

I love this series! Never disappoints especially now that one knows the characters and how they evolve

Character development amazing and addictive

This is one of my absolute favorite series of books—one of my top three, all entirely different. What draws me to a series is my affection and absorption in the characters, although there must also be plenty of plot. This entry in the series has do many interesting threads that until the very last few paragraphs the reader is discovering new twists and getting excited about future disclosures. Write fast please, Ms. Harris. I am on the edge of my seat!

The new reader is a welcome change

I love the St Cyr mysteries and thoroughly enjoy the characters and stories. I loved Davina Porter's reading. I didn't enjoy the last audible book but I found this new reader very good!

What a storyteller!

Fabulous performance telling a well written story full of suspense. I couldn’t stop listening. Great!

Well paced

Historical references added to atmosphere and reader was excellent, good story very believable and interesting

Missing Davina

Great story, good narrator and no offense to her but Hero is not the same Hero without Davina.

A winner!

What a strong entry in this series!! Harris tends to group related plot lines over 2-3 novels. This latest is the third of the grouping set in 1815.

An excellent mystery and lots of Sebastian & Hero time! Harris also seems to be seeding future plot twists: in the inevitable confrontation between father-in-law Jarvis and son-in-law Sebastian and their spouses; how best to parent the two young boys in the viscount’s family; the continued aging of Lord Hendon and his duchess sister (I truly hope either the Earl or the Duchess will still be alive when Sebastian’s parenting mystery is resolved).

Looking forward to the climactic crisis of the Year Without a Summer in 1816.

Thank you, dear author! And thanks to the publisher for a wonderful new narrator! RIP Jenny Sterlin - so sad!

Most intense descriptions of the inhumane conditions in which the poor of Regency England were allowed to live and die

I’ve heard that it is but I hope that it isn’t the last book of the series. These novels are finely constructed. I’ll miss the characters, the scenery and the murders.

wonderful!

as always this book pulls you in from the beginning. wonderful narration and story line

Harris / St Cyr did not disappoint

Great plot and continuity of series. The plot kept me guessing . The action well written as usual. Read first time and anxiously waited for audible. Sadly the the narrator shoulfd have just read all as the main characters did not carry their characterazation as had previously been shaped in theseries. Cynical edge for Sebastian an high pitch for Love joy plus Tom did not sound like he was raised on the streets. will recommend reading book. Still looking forward to reading next in series.