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A review by bunnieslikediamonds
Dead and Buried by Barbara Hambly
4.0
Charming mystery set in New Orleans in 1836, starring the likable physician and homme de couleur libre, Benjamin January. This is number nine in the series, and I had a hard time keeping track of the characters, but other than that, it worked fine as a stand-alone.
At a funeral for a black man, the coffin turns out to contain the body of a murdered Irishman. This sparks an investigation into murky family secrets, with January following clues through dark alleys and whorehouses. Fast-paced and entertaining, but also tragic and gripping. I often find historical fiction to be burdened by too much irrelevant text book period detail, but Hambly manages to convey a great sense of time and place through plain old-fashioned storytelling. The plot is clever and the unraveling of the mystery interesting, though I was even more interested in January. Now I have to decide whether to start reading the series from the beginning, or just go with the ones available at the library.
At a funeral for a black man, the coffin turns out to contain the body of a murdered Irishman. This sparks an investigation into murky family secrets, with January following clues through dark alleys and whorehouses. Fast-paced and entertaining, but also tragic and gripping. I often find historical fiction to be burdened by too much irrelevant text book period detail, but Hambly manages to convey a great sense of time and place through plain old-fashioned storytelling. The plot is clever and the unraveling of the mystery interesting, though I was even more interested in January. Now I have to decide whether to start reading the series from the beginning, or just go with the ones available at the library.