From Booklist
The seventh Benjamin January mystery begins not long after January's wedding; he and his wife, Rose, are en route to Mexico, where January's close friend is being held for a murder he says he did not commit. Can Benjamin clear him before he is executed? The story is solid and suspenseful, but we don't read the January mysteries entirely for their plots. Born at the beginning of the nineteenth century, the son of slaves on a cane plantation in Louisiana, educated in France, trained in medicine and music, an amateur detective, a free black man in a country still clutching to the awful notion of slavery, January is one of the genre's most unusual and interesting protagonists. Hambly, who has a master's degree in medieval history and whose knowledge of early-nineteenth-century America is clearly abundant, doesn't just write period mysteries; she engages in literary time travel. Few historical novels are as textured, as tactile, as the January mysteries. Considering the popularity of this series, demand for this title is guaranteed to be high. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"Hambly's Mexico is frighteningly alive."
--Publisher's Weekly
From the Hardcover edition.
Review
"Hambly's Mexico is frighteningly alive."
--Publisher's Weekly
From the Hardcover edition.
Days of the Dead FROM THE PUBLISHER
"Mexico City in the autumn of 1835 is a lawless place, teeming with bandits and beggars. But an urgent letter from a desperate friend draws Benjamin January and his new bride Rose from New Orleans to this newly free province. Here they pray they'll find Hannibal Sefton alive - and not hanging from the end of a rope." "Sefton stands accused of murdering the only son of prominent landowner Don Prospero de Castellon. But when Benjamin and Rose arrive at Hacienda Mictlan, they encounter a murky tangle of family relations, and more than one suspect in young Fernando's murder. While the evidence against Hannibal is damning, Benjamin is certain that his consumptive, peace-loving fellow musician isn't capable of murder. Their only allies are the dead boy's half sister, who happens to be Hannibal's latest inamorata, and the mentally unstable Castellon himself, who awaits Mexico's holy Days of the Dead, when he believes his slain son will himself reveal the identity of his killer." The search for the truth will lead Benjamin and Rose down a path that winds from the mazes of the capital's back streets and barrios to the legendary pryamids of Mictlan and, finally, to a place where spirits walk and the dead cry out for justice. But before they can lay to rest the ghosts of the past, Benjamin and Rose will have to stop a flesh-and-blood murderer who's determined to escape the day of reckoning and add Benjamin and Rose to the swelling ranks of the dead.
SYNOPSIS
The New York Times hails Barbara Hambly's novels featuring Benjamin January as ᄑmasterly,ᄑ ᄑravishing,ᄑ and ᄑhaunting.ᄑ The Chicago Tribune crowns them ᄑdazzlingᄑJanuary is a wonderfully rich and complex character.
FROM THE CRITICS
Publishers Weekly
In Hambly's seventh gripping, unsettling mystery to feature free black man Benjamin January (after 2002's Wet Grave), January and his bride, Rose, leave New Orleans for Mexico in 1835. They've received an urgent plea from friend and fellow musician Hannibal Sefton (introduced in 2001's Die Upon a Kiss), who's being held by rich madman Don Prospero de Castellon. Don Prospero not only believes Sefton killed his son; he expects the victim to confirm his murderer's identity when he returns during the Day of the Dead celebrations. Thrown into the volatile mix are a merciless police chief who hates Don Prospero and his immense wealth; the young German valet who proclaimed Sefton his master's killer; Generalissimo Santa Anna, whose approaching war with the "Texians" is financed by Don Prospero; and a host of jealous and vindictive family members who are dependent upon Don Prospero for their finances and living arrangements. As in previous January mysteries, race, power, religion and sex figure prominently in the dense and intricate plot, with an abundance of historical references packed into every chapter. Hambly's Mexico is frighteningly alive, from its rampant poverty and self-serving politicians to the nation's preoccupation with and devotion to its dead. (July 1) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
A mordantly atmospheric twist on the locked-room puzzle set in 1835. Free man of color Benjamin January (Wet Grave, 2002, etc.) and his new wife Rose have traveled from their New Orleans home to Mexico City to attend the imminent hanging of Januaryᄑs opium-eating, Virgil-and-Shakespeare-quoting friend Hannibal Sefton. Sefton, one of 24 guests present at Don Prospero de Castellonᄑs dinner party, is accused of poisoning Prosperoᄑs only son, the despicable Fernando, and the seriously demented Don fully expects his sonᄑs ghost to appear at the upcoming Day of the Dead celebration and demonstrate how Sefton committed the dastardly deed. Capitan Ylario of the Guardia Civil, loathe to wait for a ghostᄑs testimony, would prefer to execute Sefton right now, but heᄑs thwarted by the intercession of Generalissimo Santa Anna. While January and Rose sort through the many dinner guestsᄑ familial, romantic, and religious attachments, as well as their knowledge of arcane poisons and allergies, the Donᄑs cook is murdered and Fernandoᄑs valet/lover absconds. It will take dead-of-night stealth, several disguises, a reworded will, and the purported appearance of the awaited ghost to resolve matters in a bloody climax. A few too many dinner guests and liaisons, perhaps, but exquisitely delineated 19th-century Tex-Mex warfare and death rituals from passionate historian Hambly.