Barbara Hambly is the one author I always purchase in hard cover: I want her to keep writing. I have been enjoying her books since the early 1980s. I am therefore very glad that Severn House has continued the Benjamin January series. I have read most, if not all, of Hambly's many books but the Benjamin January mysteries are my favorite (along with Hambly's Darwath fantasies). Benjamin, a "free man of color" from New Orleans who is a surgeon and a musician, has been involved in a number of adventures. Some are better than others but all are historically accurate, which to me is a major advantage. Each contains a meticulously researched and depicted setting. In this case, it is Washington DC at a time when it was little more than a muddy haven for office-seekers, slave catchers, and politicians of dubious honesty. Hambly is a trained historian and anachronisms in her books are few. I steer clear of a lot of historical fiction because glaring anachronisms make me want to throw the book across the room.
Ben finds himself in Washington helping his sister's protector, whose wife wants to find a missing friend. Suffice it to say that Ben succeeds, encountering members of the free black population of Washington, major historical figures like John Quincy Adams, slave catchers, the inmates and staff of a lunatic asylum, and a British spy ring, as well as an early version of the game of baseball. The title refers to the murder victim, a tragic newly-freed slave.
Though I love the January books I find that I am approaching each new one with an increasing sense of unease, because I care about these characters. The setting of most of the books, New Orleans in the 1830s, was an increasingly dangerous time for people of color, as the old French society with its racial balance, if not tolerance, broke down before the new American rule. Most Americans and their racial attitudes are not portrayed kindly and their treatment of people like Ben, even though he is free and a professional man, is anything but civilized. As he takes on various detective commissions he is under constant threat of being kidnapped into slavery. I find that with each book Ben is angrier, which is not surprising at all. This is where the suspense comes in, along with Hambly's marvelously complex plots. Meanwhile, the insights into Ben's family and his friends grow in each book, which is fun, once one is invested in the characters.
I think Hambly has done a marvelous job building up her historically imagined setting and peopling it with interesting characters, all with their colorful and very human flaws. Even Ben is not always correct in his detective assumptions--at least not at first. He often takes dangerous risks to get the job done. I seem to have reviewed the entire series as much as this particular book, but this one is really only the latest excellent adventure in an excellent series. I hope there will be many more.
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Top reviews from other countries
Kindle Customer
An interesting read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 29, 2020
Phedre
Die Serie bleibt weiterhin einer meiner Favoriten
Reviewed in Germany on March 27, 2013
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Why do Real Books have Minute Print? Is it an ebook sales gimmick??
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Unfamiliar territory
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