Dead and Buried

Starred review from March 29, 2010
Sorrow, grief, and pain pervade Hambly's outstanding ninth Benjamin January mystery (after 2004's Dead Water
), set in New Orleans during the summer of 1836. Trapped by poverty and the color of his skin, January, a free black who trained in France as a physician, goes undercover as a piano player in a high-class bordello to investigate possible embezzlement from the Faubourg Tremé Free Colored Militia and Burial Society. The discovery of a white man's body in a coffin meant for one of the FTFCMBS's members propels the justice-seeking January on a harrowing journey full of disturbing revelations to save a young English aristocrat from the gallows. Hambly's sure hand with historical detail, her convincing characterizations, and her view of the slave trade that debased both blacks and their white masters raise this tale of violence, deceit, and humiliation to a must-read commentary on human frailty and redeeming human friendship.

April 15, 2010
1863 New Orleans witnesses the upheaval caused by"passe blanc."

When the coffin is dropped, the wrong corpse falls out. Instead of black musician Rameses Ramilles, opium-addicted fiddle player Hannibal Sefton (Patriot Hearts, 2007, etc.) recognizes Patrick Derryhick, a man he knew a continent away when they shared secrets as they closed bars in Paris and London. Why was Patrick in New Orleans in the summer heat, traveling with Lord Foxford, Foxford's uncle Diogenes, and Droudge, his business manager? Sefton leans on his pal, free man of color Benjamin January, to investigate. The tale at first seems to hinge on investing in cotton plantations upriver but then veers off into inheritance concerns complicated by interracial romance and a touch of blackmail by a gentleman impersonating a lord. January is waylaid; Foxford is charged with murder by the New Orleans City Guard; and a lady's maid is sold into slavery to keep her quiet while mounting clues intimate that some families are passing for white despite parents of color. The undertaker's half-brother will be accused of siphoning off bank funds from a Burial Society and January will have to outrun overseers, slave traders and men determined to obfuscate family origins before matters settle down.

Vivid glimpses of the disparate lives led by whites and people of color in mid-19th-century New Orleans.

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May 1, 2010
With his first appearance in A Free Man of Color (1997), Benjamin January emerged as one of the most unusual characters in the realm of historical mysteries, with his creator earning kudos for both her originality and her extraordinary attention to historical detail. If living as a free black in nineteenth-century New Orleans wasnt enough to set January apart, his classical education, years of living in Paris, and knowledge of medicine made him truly unusual. Although Januarys past investigations have earned him respect from many in his native city, his endeavors to save the life of an uncooperative young lord accused of murder are still hampered by long-held secrets and by vicious racism that puts Januarys life at risk, time and again. Relayed through Januarys perspective, the story gives an intimate picture of the intolerance and struggles of the time, but as carefully crafted as these matters are, Hambly is also talented enough to entertain. Thats two successes for the price of one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)