In March 1815, with the Bourbon king Louis XVIII restored to the throne of France, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, travels to Paris to find his long-lost mother, Sophie, the roving Countess of Hendon. Alas, when he discovers her, she's been thrown from one of the Île de la Cité's time-roughened bridges and is dying from a stab wound. With the times still unsettled, the French authorities have little interest in addressing the murder of a scandalous Englishwoman, so Sebastian himself investigates. Next in the USA Today best-selling "Sebastian St. Cyr Mystery" series.

Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is in Paris looking for his mother Sophia, long thought dead. But by the time he finds her, it is too late--he catches her last breath under a bridge, from which she had been pushed after being stabbed. The mystery of her death is inextricably linked to the unrest in France in 1815, with the Bourbons back on the throne as rumors swirl that Napoleon is planning an escape from exile on Elba. Sophia was mistress to one of Napoleon's generals and had just returned to Paris after a trip to Elba, but why? Assisted by his wife, Hero, Sebastian unravels his mother's tangled last days, inadvertently putting his young family in danger. In the seventeenth Sebastian St. Cyr mystery (after What the Devil Knows, 2021), Harris captures the uneasy peace in post-Revolution Paris, where the memory of the guillotine still looms large, and the streets are full of injured soldiers. She incorporates vivid historical details and explanations of complicated politics into a fast-moving plot, a hallmark of this winning historical mystery series.

Bestseller Harris's standout 17th Sebastian St. Cyr mystery (after 2021's What the Devil Knows) provides an early gut-punch for her aristocratic detective. St. Cyr has wondered about his lineage since learning that the man he had thought his father, the Earl of Hendon, was not. In 1815, St. Cyr and his wife travel to Paris in the hopes of discovering the truth from his mother, Sophie, who abandoned her family 20 years earlier, faked her death, and is now the mistress of one of the exiled Napoleon's most trusted generals. To his horror, he chances upon Sophie near the Seine, having apparently fallen from a bridge, with a stab wound in her back. Sophie dies soon afterward, but the authorities are uninterested in treating the fatality as a homicide. St. Cyr presses on and learns that his mother recently visited Napoleon on Elba, a dangerous step given the French government's fears that the former emperor may be planning a return to power. Harris makes the torment of her lead palpable even to newcomers and perfectly balances the personal aspects of the case with detection. This long-running series remains as fresh as ever. Agent: Helen Breitwieser, Cornerstone Literary. (Apr.)

A son searches for his mother's killer on the cusp of Napoleon's triumphant return to Paris. March 1815 finds Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, in Paris with his wife, Hero, searching for the mother he'd long thought dead. Sebastian was born to Sophia, Countess of Hendon, and is the heir of the Fifth Earl of Hendon, but he's not the earl's natural son. For years he thought his mother was lost at sea only to learn she'd actually left his father and her children behind. His search for her has been made more difficult by the war raging across Europe, but with Napoleon in exile, he's finally learned that she's returned from Vienna to Paris using the alias Sophia Cappello. He's crushed to find her bloody body near the home he's renting, stabbed and thrown off the Pont Neuf. She dies before they can speak, and he vows to find the killer. Sophia has lately been mistress to Alexandre McClellan, formerly one of Napoleon's marshals. The Bourbons are back in power, and France is restless under their rule, which is returning to the fanaticism of the monarchy before the revolution. The authorities seem determined to call Sophia's death an accident, but Sebastian suspects politics are involved when he learns that Sophia had visited Elba before returning to Paris. A painting of McClellan inside her house, which he's inherited, makes Sebastian wonder if the subject is his real father. The discovery of his mother's reticule and then a jeweled leather bag sets him on a tortuous and dangerous search for the truth played out against the turmoil of Napoleon's attempt to regain control of France. The detailed historical narrative blends seamlessly with a complex, fast-paced mystery. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.