Death and Hard Cider (A Benjamin January Mystery, 19)
Benjamin January, musician, surgeon, and free man of colour, lives in New Orleans in 1840. Political tensions run high when Henry Clay of the American Colonization Society (or the “Send ’Em Back to Africa” club), arrives in town canvassing for ‘Tippecanoe’ Harrison. Benjamin’s little orchestra is called upon to provide musical background at political events, rallies and receptions, both Democrat and Whig. Along with the music, they contribute a running commentary on who will call out whom before the end of the evening. Shortly after one such duel, the beautiful daughter of a semi-impoverished plantation owner is found dead. She was well-known as a shameless flirt; endless suitors, both married and single, have been dangled and played with. Perhaps one of them had reason enough to kill her. When a long-time friend is arrested for the murder, January joins the hunt for the truth, going places and asking questions others can’t. Finding himself in danger, he realises there’s a second, more politically motivated murder in the offing. Layered with undercurrents about the horrors and ambiguity of slavery, Hambly’s secondary storyline of a fugitive slave reminds us of January’s deeply felt personal beliefs and the risks he runs every day.
Such a long-running series (this is book 19) inevitably has complex backstory and character interaction, only a small portion of which can be included here. Hambly’s passionately descriptive narrative style makes for a paced read, a novel to be savoured, not rushed. Steeped in Southern atmosphere—the oppressive bayou heat, the buzzing vibration of mosquitoes, smouldering cressets, rustling sugar cane—January negotiates a tightrope of politics, friendship and family loyalty. Readers unfamiliar with the series might want to begin with an earlier book, to set the stage, but there’s no doubt this is an engrossing series.
