Cold Bayou (Benjamin January Series #16)

by Barbara Hambly

Overview

Everyone at the family wedding was hoping someone would murder the bride ... The intriguing new Benjamin January mystery.

"Don't go to Cold Bayou, brother ... Nuthin' good waiting for you there."

New Orleans, 1839. Despite his misgivings, Benjamin January has agreed to play the piano at the wedding of wealthy French Creole landowner Veryl St-Chinian. All is not well, for the marriage of 67-year-old, profoundly infatuated Uncle Veryl to an 18-year-old Irish tavern-slut spells potential disaster for everyone in the inter-married Viellard and St-Chinian clans. But the old man is determined to marry Miss Ellie Trask, and nothing will stand in his way.

On the isolated plantation of Cold Bayou where the ceremony is to take place, tension is rife even before the body is discovered in the woods behind the dower house, its throat cut. A yet more disturbing turn of events sees January himself accused of the crime...

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780727887986
Publisher:	Severn House
Publication date:	09/01/2018
Series:	Benjamin January Series , #16
Edition description:	First World Publication
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Barbara Hambly, though a native of Southern California, lived in New Orleans for many years while married to the late science fiction writer George Alec Effinger. Hambly holds a degree in medieval history from the University of California and has written novels in numerous genres.

Editorial Reviews

2018-07-31

A rewardingly complex tale of murder in families related by blood and stratified by color in 1839 New Orleans.

Benjamin January (Murder in July, 2017, etc.) is a Paris-trained physician and musician whose mother, Livia, was the mistress of a wealthy Creole man who'd purchased her as a slave and then freed her. His sister, Dominique, is the current mistress of Henri Viellard, a nephew of Veryl St-Chinian, an elderly Creole man with a large interest in many plantations who plans to marry a young Irish girl with a sordid past. January, who is dark-skinned, is asked to play at the wedding, to which many of his pale-complexioned relatives are invited. His sister Olympe, a voodooienne, warns him of danger at Cold Bayou, a remote, crumbling sugar plantation totally unsuited to housing wedding guests. Louisiana law requires every member of a family-owned property to agree on decisions. Because Veryl's bride, Ellie, would inherit his large share of the estate, his family is doing everything possible to stop the marriage. First a voodoo charm is found in Ellie's dress. Then the steamboat arrives without the priest but with Ellie's thuggish uncle, Mick Trask, accompanied by several bully boys. Things get worse. In an attempt to break up a fight, January falls from a balcony and breaks an ankle. Valla, Ellie's light-complexioned house slave, claims that Ellie's father loaned money to the man who used to own Livia and was never repaid, which would make Livia and her entire family slaves. Unremitting heat and humidity blanket the plantation, portending a storm as the squabbling families wait for the priest. January is caring for a man hurt in a duel when word arrives that Valla has been murdered. In the dark she could have been mistaken for her mistress, but whichever woman was the target, January knows that a black person will be blamed. When Trask seizes upon January as the culprit, he's shackled in a room as the plantation is flooded and must rely on others to gather clues and uncover the real killer.

Another atmospheric, beautifully written mystery in which Hambly continues to explore the repugnant practice of classifying people by the color of their skin.

Kirkus Reviews

"Hambly layers on enough period flavor to make the story feel real but never slows the narrative wit extraneous details. Another solid entry in this popular series"

Booklist

"Hambly layers on enough period flavor to make the story feel real but never slows the narrative with extraneous details. Another solid entry in this popular series"

Booklist