When Blood Lies

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Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, has spent years confronting his tragic past, and now the truth will emerge in this gripping historical mystery. In March 1815, with King Louis XVIII restored to the French throne and Napoleon exiled on Elba, Sebastian travels to Paris to search for his long-lost mother, Sophie, the errant Countess of Hendon. His quest leads to tragedy when he discovers Sophie dying in a wasteland at the tip of the Ile de la Cite, having been stabbed and thrown from the island's ancient stone bridge. She dies without revealing her murderer. Living under an assumed name, Sophie had been the scandalous mistress of Marechal Alexandre McClellan, a nobleman from a Scottish Jacobite family. Once a trusted general of Napoleon, McClellan now serves King Louis XVIII at the Congress of Vienna. Sebastian quickly realizes that the French authorities are reluctant to investigate the murder of a notorious Englishwoman during such a sensitive period. Devastated by his mother's death, he resolves to find her killer himself.