Murder in July

August 24, 2015
In the sixth installment of the James Asher vampire series, Hambly (Kindred of Darkness) deftly nests one historical story inside another. The key to a mystery on the eve of WWI lies in James Asher’s fever dreams reliving the exploits of his old friend Don Simon Ysidro at the beginning of the 17th century, when Simon navigated the politics of religious dissent among his fellow vampires in Paris. When James’s practical wife, Lydia, receives word that he has been tossed from a church steeple in Paris in a vampire attack, she calls upon Simon for resources and protection while James heals in a hospital, despite James’s new resolve to destroy all vampires. Series regulars who crave more of Simon’s backstory will find the focus on him satisfying, and Lydia’s fans will enjoy her skills in medicine, disguise, lock picking, and not dissolving in sunlight, though those more focused on continuity may dislike that Hambly leaves James and Lydia’s new baby out of the story entirely. It’s not a standout on its own, but this book is a solid continuation of a strong series.

October 1, 2017
The new Benjamin January novel finds the nineteenth-century Louisiana musician and sleuth reaching into his own past to solve a murder in the present. Nearly a decade ago, in France, he let a murderer get away; now, an offer from a British spy could let him redeem his mistake and bring another killer to justice. But how far is he willing to go? Will he put his own life and the lives of his family at risk? January is a wonderful character, a former slave who is now a professional piano player and amateur crime-solver, a man of color living in a world dominated and controlled by people who believe anyone who looks different from them is not worthy of their consideration or respect. Hambly does a fine job of presenting January's world realistically, and the mysteries January is called upon to solve feel appropriate to their historical period, but at the same time entirely contemporary. Perhaps because murder is timeless.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)