Rating: 
Summary: A Nation Begins,,,,,,,
Review: It is an absolute delight to discover new authors that have multiple titles. I purchased this first book a few years before and someone borrowed it. When it was recommended to me by an academic (who loves historical fiction) I looked for it. It had been borrowed and returned. Dog eared though it was, I commenced to reading, and I haven't stopped. Barbara Hambly has me hooked. I love Benjamin January. I am at once transported to Old New Orleans. The clashing cultures of the French and the Americans. The complex lives of the blacks, whites and inbetweens fascinates. Hambly has done her homework. I am a traveler through her looking glass.
Rating:
Summary: Engrossing mystery, believeable setting
Review: Reviewer: Tanja Edwards (see more about me) from Norman, OK USA
Barbara Hambly gives her readers a mystery that captures their attention and a main character that captures their sympathy. Benjamin January is in quite an unenviable position. He is a free man of color, but his status is very precarious in a society that at one time respected the rights of people like him, but as more American whites have come in, his freedom could be taken away at any moment. And with the murder of a free woman of color ruffling the feathers of both the white and colored community, Benjamin's very life could be in danger.Ms. Hambly not only makes the mystery engrossing, she also makes the caste system engrossing. We come to understand the ins and outs of the New Orleans society Benjamin and his family and friends reside. We also understand why Benjamin both reviles it and yet cannot leave it. For better or worse, this is home. And Ms. Hambly describes it in lush detail, from the wild costumes of the colored balls to the Louisiana backwoods and swamps. You can almost feel the drumbeats the slaves are forbidden to tap out, yet do so with their voices and the rhythm of their work. I will definitely be reading more of this series.
Rating: 
Summary: A letter from the author
Review: Since my college days (back in the late Mesozoic Era) I've wanted to do a mystery set in the antebellum South with a free black protagonist. Historical mysteries are mostly comedies of manners--investigations of the ins and outs of the society in which they take place--and the artificiality of that milieu fascinated me. I deliberately steered clear of the Civil War and the era immediately preceding it because a) a lot of other people have done it better than I could and b) because the issues, and the people, were very different even a generation earlier. It mokes it harder to research--very little is done about that changeover generation between Jeffersonian and Jacksonian America--but the more I study, the more fascinating stuff I find. It's a goldmine for a writer. One of the things I enjoy most about the Benjamin January series is the continuing cast of characters. Family and friends are a major subtheme of the books: you need your family. You need your friends. After Benjamin s wife dies he returns to New Orleans, a city in which he will automatically become a non-person and will be in periodic danger of enslavement, because his family is there and in his grief and his pain he cannot survive without them. This is not only an emotional truth in all times and places, but very typical of the society about which I'm writing. To the antebellum New Orleans Creoles, both white and black, family was everything. I must say I love writing Ben's mother. She's an absolutely horrible woman, snobbish and greedy and self-centered, but she's a wonderful mechanism to advance plots by giving the reader whole reams of Information in the form of spiteful gossip. In fact I love writing about most of those people--Ben's sisters, and his worthless white pal Hannibal, and Lieutenant Shaw. I'll occasionally use historical characters in the books, like Madame Lalaurie or John Davis, the man who owned the Orleans Ballroom, and I try to get those people as accurately as I can, from what I can learn of them. There was no lack of fascinating people running around New Orleans in that era. About some of them. like the voodoo queen Marie Laveau, it's almost impossible to find "hard" information--only rumors and traditions and tales that have been colored by the prejudice or political correctness of the tellers. I try, too, to portray what the city must have been like, what people must have been like. New Orleans fascinates me because there were literally four separate social systems--white Creoles, white Americans, mixed-race free colored, and black slaves--living in the same few square miles of territory and none of them dealing with the others unless absolutely necessary. The concept of solidarity between the free colored and the blacks was almost unheard-of: the free colored, for the most part, identified with the white Creoles, the people who had power and money. January is an interesting character to me precisely because he was raised with a French Creole outlook, because he has the outlook of an educated European. He's very much a man between two worlds, on outsider among his own people. For most of my life I've been a student of history, although I've had a fairly long career as a writer of sword-and-sorcery fantasy before I began writing historical mysteries. My degree is in Medieval History, something I've seldom used in any of my writing: basically what I learned was how to research, and how to set up a non-industrial society. From the time I was five I knew that I wanted to write, and I've tried to do at least a little of the things I write about: hand-to-hand combat, riding a horse, loading black powder weapons. dancing, wearing a corset. My love of history was one of the things that drew me to New Orleans for the first time, though I fell in love with the city--and with my husband, whom I met there--and ended up living in New Orleans half-time for nearly three years. I feel like I have so much more to learn. About myself I will just say that I was born In California, raised here, and currently live in Los Angeles with my husband, two dogs, two cats, and two lizards. Like Benjamin, I treasure my family and my friends. In the course of getting my degree in Medieval History I spent a year at the University of Bordeaux in the early seventies, and in connection with writing a couple of historical vampire thrillers I've traveled through Europe learning that there are no back-alleys in the old part of Vienna (oops, I guess I'll have to re-write that back-alley scene) and that the sunlight in Istanbul is not like light anywhere else that I've seen. My husband, who is a science fiction writer, and I go back to New Orleans a few, times a year. Even in the eighteenth century it was remarked on that once someone had lived there, the city would draw them back. I hope to go on writing about that town for a very long time.
Rating:
Summary: What a finely written and engrossing mystery!
Review: This book definitely falls into the "how did I miss this?" category. Barbara Hambly is an extremely gifted writer capable of writing atomospheric prose full of emotion and marvelously descriptive. When those gifts are in the hands of someone who can also craft a good mystery, watch out! I am a big fan of historical mysteries, but only if they ring true--if the author somehow manages to evoke the spirit of the times in every character. A Free Man of Color does that, transporting us to the socially confusing and racially diverse world of New Orleans in the decades before the American Civil War. Hambly paints with remarkable accuracy all the shades and tones of Creole culture: from the French plantation owners down through the mixed race free people of color, and down to the black slaves. Her hero, Benjamin January, is not only a gifted musician but a Paris-educated surgeon, who returned to New Orleans after the death of his wife in Europe. He returns to the city as an insider/outsider, the perfect person to observe the actions of society. When a beautiful mixed race mistress to a wealthy Creole planter turns up at the annual Blue Ribbon Ball in New Orleans, January is there to observe, to analyze, and finally to solve the mystery of her death. If you like vivid historical mysteries I think you will love this book!
Rating:
Summary: What a finely written and engrossing mystery!
Review: This book definitely falls into the "how did I miss this?" category. Barbara Hambly is an extremely gifted writer capable of writing atomospheric prose full of emotion and marvelously descriptive. When those gifts are in the hands of someone who can also craft a good mystery, watch out! I am a big fan of historical mysteries, but only if they ring true--if the author somehow manages to evoke the spirit of the times in every character. A Free Man of Color does that, transporting us to the socially confusing and racially diverse world of New Orleans in the decades before the American Civil War. Hambly paints with remarkable accuracy all the shades and tones of Creole culture: from the French plantation owners down through the mixed race free people of color, and down to the black slaves. Her hero, Benjamin January, is not only a gifted musician but a Paris-educated surgeon, who returned to New Orleans after the death of his wife in Europe. He returns to the city as an insider/outsider, the perfect person to observe the actions of society. When a beautiful mixed race mistress to a wealthy Creole planter turns up at the annual Blue Ribbon Ball in New Orleans, January is there to observe, to analyze, and finally to solve the mystery of her death. If you like vivid historical mysteries I think you will love this book!
Rating:
Summary: A surprising change of pace for a fantasy writer
Review: This book provides a facinating historical portrait of pre-civil war New Orleans and the plight of free blacks in a society powered by slavery. The characters were sympathetic and believable. I hope there is a sequel.
Rating: 
Summary: A really good book, not great.
Review: This is the first in a series of mysteries set in Antebellum New Orleans. Ben Janvier (or Benjamin January, in English) is a free black returned from Paris after the tragic death of the love of his life. On his return, he becomes sadly reacquainted with the second-class status of free blacks in Louisiana. Heroes and villains and everyone in between cross the color spectrum; although, the chief villains tend to be white. His mother was a placee who provided him with an education and raised him but is often viscious. Then there are his two sisters, one a voodoo priestess and the other, the delightfully charming, innocent and (probably) ultimately tragic Dominique, a young, beautiful and innocent placee of color. Outside his family is the tobacco-chewing "Kaintuck" Shaw, a white man who, despite the characterizations of the Americans as tending more toward racial bigotry than the French or Spanish whites, clearly dislikes the system of slavery and deeply sympathizes with January. There is also the poverty-stricken white Hannibal, January's friend and co-musician who is highly educated but suffers from consumption. Weaving her way through the books is also the extremely delightful Marie Lavosier, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans who is a devotee of both Jesus Christ and Papa Legba. Although Ms. Hambly does not always appear to be historically accurate in every detail, the whole appears to be a delightfully (or, perhaps, sadly) authentic recreation of life in that time and place. All four in the series are a must read for anyone who likes period fiction, antebellum history or simply a good mystery story!
Rating: 
Summary: Benjamin Janvier and historical fiction
Review: This is the first in a series of mysteries set in Antebellum New Orleans. Ben Janvier (or Benjamin January, in English) is a free black returned from Paris after the tragic death of the love of his life. On his return, he becomes sadly reacquainted with the second-class status of free blacks in Louisiana. Heroes and villains and everyone in between cross the color spectrum; although, the chief villains tend to be white. His mother was a placee who provided him with an education and raised him but is often viscious. Then there are his two sisters, one a voodoo priestess and the other, the delightfully charming, innocent and (probably) ultimately tragic Dominique, a young, beautiful and innocent placee of color. Outside his family is the tobacco-chewing "Kaintuck" Shaw, a white man who, despite the characterizations of the Americans as tending more toward racial bigotry than the French or Spanish whites, clearly dislikes the system of slavery and deeply sympathizes with January. There is also the poverty-stricken white Hannibal, January's friend and co-musician who is highly educated but suffers from consumption. Weaving her way through the books is also the extremely delightful Marie Lavosier, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans who is a devotee of both Jesus Christ and Papa Legba. Although Ms. Hambly does not always appear to be historically accurate in every detail, the whole appears to be a delightfully (or, perhaps, sadly) authentic recreation of life in that time and place. All four in the series are a must read for anyone who likes period fiction, antebellum history or simply a good mystery story!
Rating:
Summary: --Decadence in Old New Orleans--
Review: This is the story of Benjamin Janvier or January in English, who is a free man of color. Ben was born a slave in Louisiana. He was eventually set free, left America and went to France, where he married, and became a medical doctor.
The book actually begins in 1822, when after sixteen years of living in France, Ben returns to the Creole society of New Orleans. Since he's black, he's not allowed to practice medicine. Fortunately, he is also a very talented musician, and is able to make his living by teaching piano and performing at social functions. Ben experiences culture shock on his return to America. When he had previously lived in Louisiana, the French and Spanish dominated the area and now, the Americans are very prominent and powerful. Ben also has to adjust to the change in his family. His young light skinned sister is now a placee and his older sister is involved in voodoo. Ben tries to find a way to live in Louisiana, but he's constantly comparing it to his life in Paris. When Angelique Crozat, a beautiful placee is killed, Ben becomes involved in finding her murderer. Placee was the name given to the light skinned women of color, who became the mistresses of white planters.
The book is a little difficult to follow since so many characters are introduced in the first chapter. Keeping them straight is a challenge, but the story becomes so interesting that even though it's necessary to keep going back, and rereading earlier passages, I didn't really mind. This is an fascinating story, and I plan to read the next book in this series.
Rating:
Summary: One of the best historical mysteries Around.
Review: This was a very well-written historical mystery. It starts a little slow, and it's difficult keeping all the names of the characters straight since there are so many and the names are quite French and different than what most are used to. But the story is extremely well-researched. It's easy to see that this author is in love with her era and her place of choice (New Orleans in 1833). This is a lush, haunting novel like New Orleans itself. The time of the story is Mardi Gras week and Ms. Hambly deftly describes all the decadent pleasures, glittery ballrooms and the very complicated caste system of old New Orleans. The hero in the book is Benjamin January, a free man of colour who makes his living by playing the piano even though he is a trained surgeon. January was born in New Orleans and had moved to France at the age of 16 where he studied to be a surgeon. He made a life for himself there, but his wife dies of a fever, so he heads back home to be with his family. He gets thrown into a messy murder that happens at one of the dances he is playing at. There are many twists and turns in the plots, and the finale I'm sure will shock you, as it shocked me. The book starts slow but builds up momentum the further along the story goes. It's a stunner!
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