A great introduction to this series, and a series that I intend to start from the beginning. The primary character and investigator is Sebastian St Cyr, youngest son of the Earl of Hendon and husband to Hero. As the book opens, a young prostitute and a very old, eccentric rich man are preparing to initiate their evening until an intruder breaks in, the girl is shoved into a priest hole, and the miser is shot.

Concurrent with this murder is the discovery of the body of one of St Cyr's closest mates, who had fought alongside him in the British Army and had succumbed to Walcheren fever during the campaign. His sufferings made him a pauper and his wife and daughter forced to live in straightened circumstances.

However, while his friend's death is emotionally devastating, so too is the recent arrest and imprisonment of his former mistress's husband, Yates. The mistress, Kat, states Yates as being at the scene of the murder shortly after it happened as the cause for his incarceration. Also added to his charges are the theft of the giant blue diamond that had once been on the Coat of Arms of France. We have come to know this diamond as the Hope Diamond, and its history is detailed in the course of this book.

As St Cyr conducts his inquiries into how Yates was framed, his wife, Hope, is interviewing the young street sweeps of Regency London to learn about their lives. While she was raised with all the wealth and power that the daughter of the chief counsellor to the Prince Regent could bring, she is also drawn to document the lives of these young children who are left to fend for themselves as best they could.

Well-written, characters explained well, relationships from other books detailed in a few phrases, this is a good standalone book that is also a guide to the intrigues of the Regency period and the streets of its London. ( )

Napoleon and Prinny, England’s Prince Regent, both lust after a 45-carat blue diamond. After Daniel Eisler, a gem merchant with a fascination for the occult and a sideline in blackmail, is shot and killed in his house, magistrate Bertram Leigh-Jones catches Russell Yates, a homosexual profligate, standing over the deceased and whisks him off to Newgate to await a speedy trial. Sebastian St. Cyr, who still devoted to his first love, Kat, who is now in a marriage of convenience with Russell Yates, is determined to prove him innocent. This decision, although noble, is not only endangers his own pregnant wife, Hero, but pits him at odds with her father, Lord Jarvis. Cutthroats hanging around Haymarket, and a host of French agents that Napoleon has sent in pursuit of the diamond that was once stolen from the French crown jewels during the Revolution and was thought to have been in Eisler’s possession. Why was Eisler killed becomes the question. My question was why he wasn't killed long before he was? The task of all the agents and seeming everyone else except Sebastian St. Cyr is to retrieve the magnificent blue diamond. Was Eisler killed by someone so far in debt to him that he had to let Eisler debauch his wife as partial repayment? Did the Prince Regent himself target Eisler to reclaim the diamond that had been pawned by his unpopular wife, Caroline? Jenny, a prostitute who was hiding in a priest’s hole during Eisler’s murder, knows who killed him...she saw it through a hole in the door. However, can Sebastian locate and save her from assassination and save his friend Russell Yates from the gallows before it’s too late? Believe me, there is a LOT happening with a LOT of characters to keep straight along with many multiple plots. We also see that not much has changed in the political world since the early 19th-century...treacheries and moral indiscretions are alive and abundant. You cannot start in the middle of this series...it's hard enough reading them in order...but oh, it so worth it. ( )

This is the eighth installment in the Sebastian St Cyr mystery series, set in Regency-era England. When a personal acquaintance is unjustly accused of murdering an unsavory jewel collector, Sebastian is called in to make things right. Readers know there was a witness to the murder, but it takes quite a while for Sebastian to realize this, track them down, and obtain information that cracks the case. Along the way the story takes a number of turns that keep the reader guessing as to the outcome, and there are some interesting developments in Sebastian’s relatively new marriage, and his relationship with his former mistress.

I enjoy the historic setting and events in these novels. The jewel at the center of this case was the Hope Diamond, which I didn’t realize until reading the author’s notes at the end. While the book was clearly a work of fiction, it was interesting to read the history of the original gemstone and how it may have found its way to London. ( )

The first 5 books have been the strongest in my opinion, and the last few more average. But still, I was entertained and nothing really bothered me about them, so 3 stars. ( )

Great series.
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