The Nubian's Curse (Benjamin January Series #20)

by Barbara Hambly Narrated by Ron Butler

Overview

December 1840. Surgeon turned piano-player Benjamin January is looking forward to a peaceful holiday with his family. But the arrival of an old friend brings unexpected news-and unexpected danger.



Persephone Jondrette has found Arithmus: a Sudanese man with extraordinary mental abilities who January last saw in France, nearly fifteen years ago, during a ghost-hunting expedition to a haunted chateau. January and his friends survived the experience . . . but Arithmus's benefactor, the British explorer Deverel Wishart, did not. He was discovered dead one morning, his face twisted in horror, and shortly afterwards Arithmus vanished, never to be seen again.



Did Deverel succumb to the chateau's ghosts-or did Arithmus murder him and run away? January is determined to uncover the truth about the tragic incident from his past, and clear his old friend's name-but even he isn't prepared for what happens next . . .

Editorial Reviews

New York Times

[Benjamin January is] a winning character, nimbly moving through parts of history we should all know better

Booklist Starred Review of Lady of Perdition

A stark and occasionally brutal story, and Hambly tells it superbly, in prose that is vivid and empathetic. For fans of this fine series, this is a must-read

Booklist Starred Review of Death and Hard Cider

The historical backdrop is vivid, and the writing is exquisite. One of the best in a not-to-be-missed series

Booklist on House of the Patriarch

Hambly lays bare the dark underbelly of American society in the mid-nineteenth century. A fine entry in an impressive series

Booklist

Hambly is a terrific storyteller; she builds a world that feels very real with fully realized characters. In the Benjamin January novels, we feel like we've been transported to a different time and place. Wonderful

Kirkus Reviews

2023-10-21
A series of mysteries spanning two continents and many years comes to a head in Louisiana.

Benjamin January may be a Paris-trained doctor and an excellent musician, but in 1840 New Orleans, he’s a Black man who has to remember his place. The evening Ben plays at a Christmas ball, he encounters a haunting puzzle from his past. The star of the ball, the Vicomtesse de St.-Forgeux, turns out to be Persephone Jondrette, whom Ben knew in Paris as a dancer. She’s now serving as a companion to wealthy Miss Daisy Emmett, whose slave-trader father died and left her guardianship to his business partner, Creon Grice. When Persephone comes to Ben’s home the next day to ask for help looking into the well-being of two old friends, he can’t refuse, even though it brings back unpleasant memories of a weird, unsolved murder in Paris more than a decade earlier. The friends are African mathematical genius Arithmus Sudirja and Belle Wishart, a British woman; Arithmus was a companion to Belle’s scientifically inclined uncle, Deverel Wishart. After her uncle’s death, Grice married Belle for her money; he spirited Belle and Arithmus to Louisiana because the French police suspected them of killing Deverel. Now, Persephone reveals, it seems that Arithmus is enslaved on Grice’s Natchez plantation. Traveling to Natchez disguised as the valet of a white musician who’s helped him before, Ben finds that Grice has thrown Belle out of the house, demanding a divorce and obviously planning on marrying Miss Emmett to increase his fortune. Miss Emmett, however, has set her sights higher, on Prince Serafin Corvinus. When Grice vanishes, Ben, certain that he’s dead, finds himself again forced to rescue himself and his friends from a murder charge.

A hauntingly atmospheric mystery with a complex and exciting storyline.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940194088515
Publisher:	Tantor Audio
Publication date:	10/07/2025
Series:	Benjamin January Series , #20
Edition description:	Unabridged