Days of the Dead

June 9, 2003
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 Castellón. 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mysteries, race, power, religion and sex figure prominently in the dense and intricate plot, with an abundance of historical references packed into every chapter.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.

May 1, 2003
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.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2003, American Library Association.)