Crimson Angel

Starred review from October 13, 2014
Set in the summer of 1838, Hambly’s scalding 13th Benjamin January novel (after 2013’s Good Man Friday) takes the freed slave and Paris-trained surgeon to Cuba and Haiti, along with his beloved wife, Rose, and his white fiddler friend, Hannibal Sefton. The trip is prompted by Rose’s white half-brother, Jefferson Vitrack, who appears at their New Orleans home with a mysterious tale of buried family treasure. At first, January refuses to consider pursuing the treasure, which could fund the return of thousands of slaves to Africa. But after Vitrack is murdered and Rose is attacked, January realizes that he must unravel the secret behind his brother-in-law’s story. Members of January’s extended family were employed by the Caribbean sugar industry, which worked thousands of malnourished black slaves to death in an average of three years each. Hambly reveals the horrors of this grim chapter of history through understated glimpses into the mind of her hero, whose silent comment on the ferocious slave uprising that established Haiti as a black republic in 1804 sums up his attitude toward the white oppressors: “They had it coming.” Agent: Frances Collin, Frances Collin Literary Agency.

November 1, 2014
A former slave must return to Haiti to uncover a dark secret. Paris-trained physician Benjamin January is now a free man of color working as a musician in 1838 New Orleans to support his wife and young son. The arrival of wife Rose's white half brother, Jeoff Vitrac, should be a joyous occasion, but the visit brings nothing but trouble. Descendants of an aristocratic French family, the de Gericaults, Rose, Jeoff, and Aramis have heard tales of a family treasure hidden at the former family estate in Haiti. Jeoff asks Ben to help find the treasure, but Ben refuses, knowing he'd probably face a death sentence if he returned to the Black Republic of Haiti, where the slaves rose up against their oppressors, killing almost all the white plantation owners before turning to fight among themselves for control. Soon after unknown people start watching their house, Jeoff is murdered and Rose stabbed in the street. They leave the baby with Ben's sister and flee to Aramis' Grand Isle plantation, where the attacks continue. As much as he abhors the idea, Ben realizes that they'll never escape persecution until they find out whether the treasure still exists. Ben's friend the white musician Hannibal helps them by pretending Rose is his mistress and Ben his valet as they embark on a trip to Cuba in search of more clues. When Rose is kidnapped, Hannibal and Ben have no choice but to follow her to Haiti, a place where death waits around every corner. Hambly's long-running series (Good Man Friday, 2014, etc.) pulls no punches in describing the brutality of the period, when slaves and women, both possessions under the law, had little recourse for ill-treatment. The mystery is the least of this adventurous tale.

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November 1, 2014
It's 1838. Benjamin January, the former slave who works as a piano player when he's not solving mysteries, isn't entirely thrilled to learn that his wife's half-brother says he knows where the lost family fortune is located. Why isn't he thrilled? Because the treasure is supposedly located in Haiti, and Benjamin has no desire to head off on such a dangerous wild-goose chase. But, as it turns out, he's not the only one with an interest in the treasureif, in fact, it exists at all. The Benjamin January series combines well-plotted mysteries with rich period atmosphere and beautifully written characters; this one is perhaps more atmospheric than some others in the series, due to its setting and its especially dark dangers (voodoo, which also featured in an earlier novel in the series, being merely one of them). Series fans should particularly enjoy this one.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)