Sebastian St. Cyr Books in Order: How to read C.S. Harris’s Series?

Written by former university professor C.S. Harris, this historical mystery series is about Sebastian St. Cyr, an aristocratic detective in Regency England. Brilliant young nobleman shattered by his experiences in the Napoleonic Wars, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is now often called to investigate murders, dealing with members of London’s elite and the working class. His talent to navigate between these two worlds makes him the perfect man to solve sensible crimes.

How to read the Sebastian St. Cyr Series in Order?

Every Entry in the Sebastian St. Cyr book series works as a standalone story, but the lives of the different characters evolve from one novel to the other.

1. What Angels Fear – It’s 1811, and the threat of revolution haunts the upper classes of King George III’s England. Then the body of a beautiful young woman is found savagely murdered on the altar steps of an ancient church near Westminster Abbey. A dueling pistol discovered at the scene and the damning testimony of a witness both point to one man: Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin.
2. When Gods Die – The young wife of an aging marquis is found murdered in the arms of the Prince Regent. Around her neck lies a necklace said to have been worn by Druid priestesses-that is, until it was lost at sea with its last owner, Sebastian St. Cyr’s mother. Now Sebastian is lured into a dangerous investigation of the marchioness’s death-and his mother’s uncertain fate.
3. Why Mermaids Sing – Murder has jarred London’s elite. The sons of prominent families have been found at dawn in public places, partially butchered, with strange objects stuffed in their mouths. Once again, the local magistrate turns to Sebastian St. Cyr for help. Moving from the gritty world of London’s docks to the drawing rooms of Mayfair, Sebastian confronts his most puzzling-and disturbing-case yet.

4. Where Serpents Sleep – Hero Jarvis, reform-minded daughter of the Prince Regent’s cousin, enlists Sebastian St. Cyr’s help in investigating the brutal murders of eight prostitutes. Following a trail of clues from London’s seedy East End to the Mayfair mansions of a noble family, the two must race against time to stop a killer whose ominous plot threatens to shake the nation to its very core?
5. What Remains of Heaven – London 1812. When the controversial reform-minded Bishop of London is found bludgeoned to death in an ancient crypt beside the corpse of an unidentified man murdered decades before, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, reluctantly agrees to investigate.
6. Where Shadows Dance – July 1812. How do you set about solving a murder no one can reveal has been committed? That’s the challenge confronting Sebastian St. Cyr when his friend, surgeon and “anatomist” Paul Gibson, illegally buys the cadaver of a young man from London’s infamous body snatchers.

7. When Maidens Mourn – August 1812: Sebastian St. Cyr’s plans to escape the heat of London for a honeymoon with his new bride, Hero Jarvis, are shattered when the murdered body of Hero’s good friend Gabrielle Tennyson is discovered drifting in a battered boat at the site of a long-vanished castle known as Camlet Moat. Missing and also presumed dead are Gabrielle’s two young cousins.
8. What Darkness Brings – September 1812: After a long night spent dealing with the tragic death of a former military comrade, a heart-sick Sebastian St. Cyr learns of a new calamity: Russell Yates, the dashing, one-time privateer who married Kat Boleyn a year ago, has been found standing over the corpse of Benjamin Eisler, a wealthy gem dealer. Yates insists he is innocent, but he will surely hang unless Sebastian can unmask the real killer.
9. Why Kings Confess – January 1813: January 1813: When a badly injured Frenchwoman is found beside the mutilated body of Dr. Damion Pelletan in one of London’s worst slums, Sebastian St. Cyr finds himself caught in a high-stakes tangle of murder and revenge. Although the woman, Alexi Sauvage, has no memory of the attack, Sebastian knows her all too well from an incident in his past.

10. Who Buries the Dead – London, 1813. The decapitation of a wealthy plantation owner at Bloody Bridge draws Sebastian St. Cyr into a macabre and perilous investigation. The discovery near the body of a lead coffin strap bearing the inscription “King Charles, 1648” suggests a link between this killing and the beheading of the seventeenth-century monarch.
11. When Falcons Fall – Ayleswick-on-Teme, 1813. Sebastian St. Cyr and his wife, Hero, have come to this deceptively peaceful Shropshire village to honor a slain friend. But when the body of a young widow is found on the banks of the river Teme, the village’s inexperienced new magistrate turns to Sebastian for help.
12. Where the Dead Lie – London, 1813. One of the city’s many homeless children, Benji Thatcher was abducted and murdered–and his younger sister is still missing. Few in authority care about a street urchin’s fate, but Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, refuses to let this killer go unpunished.

13. Why Kill the Innocent – London, 1814. As a cruel winter holds the city in its icy grip, the bloody body of a beautiful young musician is found half-buried in a snowdrift. Jane Ambrose’s ties to Princess Charlotte, the only child of the Prince Regent and heir presumptive to the throne, panic the palace, which moves quickly to shut down any investigation into the death of the talented pianist. But Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, and his wife Hero refuse to allow Jane’s murderer to escape justice.
14. Who Slays the Wicked – When the handsome but dissolute young gentleman Lord Ashworth is found brutally murdered, Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is called in by Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy to help catch the killer. Just seven months before, Sebastian had suspected Ashworth of aiding one of his longtime friends in the kidnapping and murder of a string of vulnerable street children. But Sebastian was never able to prove Ashworth’s complicity.
15. Who Speaks for the Damned – It’s June 1814, and the royal families of Austria, Russia, and the German states have gathered in London at the Prince Regent’s invitation to celebrate the defeat of Napoléon and the restoration of monarchical control throughout Europe. But the festive atmosphere is marred one warm summer evening by the brutal murder of a disgraced British nobleman long thought dead. Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is drawn into the investigation by his valet, Jules Calhoun, an old friend of the dead man.

16. What the Devil Knows – It’s October 1814. The war with France is finally over and Europe’s diplomats are convening in Vienna for a conference that will put their world back together. With peace finally at hand, London suddenly finds itself in the grip of a series of heinous murders eerily similar to the Ratcliffe Highway murders of three years before.
17. When Blood Lies – March, 1815. The Bourbon King Louis XVIII has been restored to the throne of France, Napoleon is in exile on the isle of Elba, and Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, and his wife, Hero, have traveled to Paris in hopes of tracing his long-lost mother, Sophie, the errant Countess of Hendon. But his search ends in tragedy when he comes upon the dying Countess in the wasteland at the tip of the Île de la Cité. Stabbed-apparently with a stiletto-and thrown from the bastions of the island’s ancient stone bridge, Sophie dies without naming her murderer.
18. Who Cries for the Lost – June 1815. The people of London wait, breathlessly, for news as Napoleon and the forces united against him hurtle toward their final reckoning at Waterloo. Among them is Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, frustrated to find himself sidelined while recovering from a dangerous wound he recently received in Paris. When the mutilated corpse of Major Miles Sedgewick surfaces from the murky waters of the Thames, Sebastian is drawn into the investigation of a murder that threatens one of his oldest and dearest friends, Irish surgeon Paul Gibson.

19. What Cannot Be Said – July 1815. The Prince Regent’s grandiose plans to celebrate Napoléon’s recent defeat at Waterloo are thrown into turmoil when Lady McInnis and her daughter Emma are found brutally murdered in Richmond Park, their bodies posed in a chilling imitation of the stone effigies once found atop medieval tombs. Bow Street magistrate Sir Henry Lovejoy immediately turns to his friend Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, for help with the investigation.

If you like our article about the Sebastian St. Cyr series in order, don’t forget to bookmark it! You may also be interested in the Sano Ichiro series by Laura Joh Rowland, the Wrexford & Sloane series by Andrea Penrose