Who Speaks for the Damned

About the book

It is the month of June in the year 1814, and the royal families of Austria, Russia, and the German states have come together in London at the invitation of the Prince Regent to rejoice over Napoléon's defeat and the reinstatement of monarchical rule across Europe. However, the joyous mood is shattered one balmy summer evening when a disgraced British nobleman, long presumed dead, is found brutally murdered.

Eighteen years ago, Nicholas Hayes, the third son of the deceased Earl of Seaford, was accused of the murder of a lovely young French émigré and was sent to Botany Bay for life. Even before his conviction, Hayes had been abandoned by his father, and the news of his demise in shame in New South Wales was met with little surprise in London. Yet, those accounts were clearly mistaken. Recently, Hayes resurfaced in London with a mysterious young boy in his company--a child who goes missing shortly after Hayes's body is discovered.

Sebastian St. Cyr, Viscount Devlin, is pulled into the inquiry by his valet, Jules Calhoun, a close companion of the deceased. With Calhoun's assistance, Sebastian embarks on unraveling the tragic tale of the late Earl's ill-fated youngest son. What compelled Nicholas to risk everything by coming back to England? And why did he bring the now-missing young boy along? A number of anxious Londoners had cause to suspect that Nicholas Hayes had returned to exact vengeance upon them. It is possible that one of them decided to strike first and eliminate him.