Who Buries the Dead

Who Buries the Dead (2015) C.S. Harris

Set in London in 1813.

“In my experience, people who view others as social or financial assets rarely do accumulate close friends.”

A body is discovered at Bloody Bridge–its head sitting on the brick wall, the body lying nearby in the grass. At first, there seems to be no reason for the man to have been brutally murdered. But the more Sebastian looks into the case, the more complex things become.

I am so delighted that Sebastian and Hero seem to have made their marriage work. Their son is a few months old, and they seem to care about each other (something quite unusual at a time when most marriages of the rich and landed were for political or social success (men wanting fortunes to restore their family lands, and young women wanting to marry into the peerage).

There are several important threads running through the story. First is the murder, and why the man might have been killed. The second is Hero and Sebastian’s marriage, and how they feel about each other. Third is the return to London of Oliphant, then Colonel who tried to have Sebastian killed, and whose actions were behind many of Sebastian’s nightmares. But also running through the story are the inequalities of the time, through Hero’s interviews with the working poor, but also looking at slavery.

A succession of court cases had reinforced the popular belief that the air of England was “too pure for a slave to breathe.”

But what was true of the air of England was not true of the air in England’s colonies. Even those who supported the freeing of England’s ten to fifteen thousand slaves often grew fainthearted at the thought of the financial havoc that would result from the emancipation of those who toiled to produce the sugar, tobacco, cotton, indigo, and rice that made England wealthy and powerful.

Oh, and we also have an appearance by Jane Austen.

I remain disappointed with the recent covers in this series.

It’s not that this is a bad cover, because it isn’t. It’s just that the model is REALLY not Sebastian. All the other elements are lovely, but that model is just completely wrong for Sebastian, and it irks me every time I see him.

I much preferred the earlier covers, especially the first cover, with the red rose petals scattered like drops of blood.

But aside from that, this was another good entry in the series–I’m still not tired of reading about Sebastian, and after ten years, that’s not a bad thing at all.
Rating: 8.5/10
Published by NAL

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