Narrated by Davina Porter
If you haven’t read the previous books in the Sebastian St. Cyrseries, there will be spoilers in this review. Although I don’t recommend it, you could listen to Who Speaks for the Damned as a standalone. This review will not recap the earlier novels.
It’s June 1814. Napoleon is newly defeated, and the royal families of Austria, Russia, and Germany have joined the Prince Regent in sweltering London to celebrate. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, and his wife Hero planned to take part in the festivities later in the evening, but their plans take an abrupt detour when Sebastian is called to the scene of a murder. The victim is Nicholas Hayes, the third son of the late Earl of Seaford. Hayes was transported to Botany Bay twenty years earlier after he was found guilty of murdering a young, beautiful French émigré. Sentenced to a life term, most of London believed he perished in New South Wales not long after his arrival.
Summoned to the dead body by his valet, Jules Calhoun, Sebastian discovers Hayes face down with a sickle buried in his back. After questioning his valet, Sebastian is surprised to learn Calhoun was close to Hayes before the murder conviction, and that he had been in touch with the man since his surprising return not long ago. Calhoun contradicts many of Sebastian’s assumptions about Hayes (based on rumors and gossip), and then tells him that prior to his murder, Hayes had been accompanied by a young boy. The boy – known as Ji – has vanished and is nowhere to be found. Intrigued by this alternate version of Hayes, and unwilling to let a killer roam free, Sebastian agrees to look into the murder. Meanwhile, Calhoun and Hero, currently researching and interviewing street musicians for an article she’s planning to write, try to track down the missing child.
Sebastian’s investigations soon lead him to conclude that Hayes’ reputation as a wild and immoral young man are mostly unfounded. Hayes was impulsive and sometimes reckless, but he was also extremely unlucky. Many of the rumors about Hayes are untrue, and the list of suspects with motives to kill him grows with each new revelation about his past. Unfortunately, most of the men who had reasons to want Hayes dead have alibis for the night of the murder. And it’s still unclear why Hayes returned to London, risking arrest and imprisonment after more than a decade of freedom. Could his return have something to do with why he was killed? Was he out for revenge? Who knew he was in London? And where is Ji? Sebastian’s investigation takes on new urgency as the body count grows, and someone nearly kills Hero.
Although Sebastian chases down every clue and utilizes every weapon in his arsenal – including his formidable Aunt Henrietta and her prodigious memory, it’s been decades since Hayes was transported, and many of those who once knew him are either disinclined to reopen old wounds and scandals, or potentially guilty. C. S. Harris keeps Sebastian on his toes with red herrings, multiple suspects and motives, and a killer desperate to silence any possible witnesses to the crime, all juxtaposed against a growing belief that Hayes should never have been transported in the first place. His investigation reveals a man whose life was marked by tragedy after tragedy, and Sebastian is astute enough to realize how easily his own life might have followed a similar trajectory. As usual, Harris masterfully incorporates Sebastian’s murder inquiry into the major historical events of the time, while cleverly weaving seemingly unrelated (topical) plot threads – Hero’s research into street musicians; the burgeoning opium trade between England and China; espionage; the lack of female agency – into the extremely satisfying, and poignant conclusion.
Readers eager to learn more about Sebastian and his origin story, or Jarvis and the mysterious, conniving cousin Victoria (teased in Who Slays the Wicked), will be disappointed to learn that they’re absent from this story. Instead, Harris narrowly focuses her attention Hayes’ tragic life and murder, and not much else. Fortunately, it’s compelling stuff. Hayes’ life is painfully sad, and the investigation kept me glued to the story. And although we only get a few cameos from the cast of secondary characters who usually inhabit Sebastian’s world, Who Speaks for the Damned features a rather large cast of its own. There are plentiful villains and victims in this story, and a refreshingly different point of view – the mysterious Ji, Hayes’ scared young companion. I found Ji’s PoV particularly compelling (and harrowing), and I looked forward to the resolution of Ji’s story nearly as much as the revelation of the killer.
I listened to the first thirteen books in the Sebastian St. Cyr series, and spent several satisfying months immersed in Harris’ fictional world. I read book fourteen, Who Slays the Wicked, and didn’t enjoy it nearly as much. Davina Porter absolutely brings this series and these characters to life, and her performance elevates these already tremendous novels. She perfectly captures Sebastian, and her ability to render all the different facets of his personality is a marvel. I particularly love Sebastian when his temper is barely leashed (questioning the various evasive and abrasive villains of this story), and I love his amusement each and every time he visits with Aunt Henrietta and cajoles her into spilling secrets about her friends and contemporaries. And speaking of Aunt Henrietta, Porter’s portrayal of the dowager duchess is impeccable; Aunt Henrietta steals every scene in which she appears. I wasn’t as enamored of her interpretation of Ji (I’m not fond of adults trying to mimic the voice of a child), but the story itself further complicates this tricky role, and overall it works in the context of this story.
Who Speaks for the Damned is another tightly plotted mystery in the Sebastian St. Cyr series. Davina Porter masterfully narrates this compelling story and brings Sebastian and the large secondary cast of characters to life. Despite the lack of focus on the titular hero and his intriguing back story, fans will be well-pleased by this latest instalment.
Em
Buy Who Speaks for the Damned by C.S. Harris on Amazon
