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
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Review
"Hambly's Mexico is frighteningly alive."
--Publisher's Weekly


Review
"Hambly's Mexico is frighteningly alive."
--Publisher's Weekly

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 ￯﾿ﾽdazzling￯﾿ﾽJanuary 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