C. S. Harris, When Gods Die

When Gods Die

C. S. Harris

NAL, November 2006, $23.95

ISBN: 0451219686

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 Lord Jarvis 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 ambiance of the era inside a realistic entertaining whodunit.