Drinking Gourd by Barbara Hambly

Drinking Guard: The New Benjamin January Novel by Barbara Hambly --- 248 pages

Another impossible-to-put-down historical mystery, number 14 in the Benjamin January series, by Barbara Hambly, featuring a free man of color in antebellum New Orleans.

In the sweltering summer of 1839, Ben and his wife Rose are still trying to recover from the bank crash precipitated by President Andrew Jackson in 1837. Ben has taken a job with a traveling minstrel show for $10 a week. He is accompanied by his friend and fellow musician Hannibal Sefton. Since Hannibal is white, with suitably forged papers, he can pose as Ben's owner on their travels. When $10 a week can support a family, and a prime field hand sells for $1500 on the auction block, the pretense that Hannibal is his master is Ben's only protection from the slave trade.

Just as the traveling show is quitting Natchez, Ben receives a message asking for help. Up river at Vicksburg, a black barber named Rex Ballou and a white preacher named Ezekias Drummond have partnered to help escaping slaves flee north on the Underground Railroad.  Now, this "station" on the railroad could be exposed because Rex Ballou has been shot when a roving patrol stumbled on a "cargo" of slaves he was leading to the next station. If Ballou's cover is blown, everyone involved will come under suspicion and be subject to bloody reprisals. He needs a doctor to help him get on his feet again quickly.

Then Ezekias Drummond is murdered, and Jubal Cain, the man secretly responsible for coordinating the whole railroad in Mississippi, is framed by a prominent local planter who thinks Cain is having an affair with his wife.  As Ben tries to sort through all the lies and deceptions to discover the even more terrible truth he is beginning to suspect, Hannibal is attacked. Without his "owner" to protect him, Ben must flee for his life into the trackless swamp land. Unless he can ensure Hannibal's survival and solve the murder, Ben knows he will never make it home to New Orleans and Rose.

Click HERE to read the review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read the review from Publishers Weekly.

The Fateful Lightning by Jeff Shaara

The Fateful Lightning by Jeff Shaara-615 pages

I enjoyed reading this novelization of Sherman's March to the Sea. The characterization and humanization of Generals Sherman and Hardee, and Captain Seeley are intriguing. Additionally, Shaara's presentation of a freed slave named Franklin is most intriguing, though a bit stereotypical. I like the way Shaara chooses a few people to follow throughout the events and attempts to humanize these historical events. In many ways, he succeeds, which is why I so enjoy reading his novels. One thing I found disappointing about this particular novel, though, is that he leaves Franklin's story hanging. He spends a lot of time developing Franklin's character and then leaves the reader hanging a bit (although he does include an ending in his Afterword). One other small complaint I have is that he includes one chapter on General William B. Hazen when it is necessary, but does not develop his character at all and includes nothing about him in the Afterword. Overall, though, I liked this novel just as well as every Shaara novel I have read so far.

Who Buries the Dead by C.S. Harris

Who Buries the Dead: A Sebastian St.Cyr Mystery by C.S. Harris --- 338 pages

In the tenth volume of Harris's historical mystery series set in Regency England, Sebastian and his wife Hero are adjusting to marriage and the birth of their son, Simon. Sebastian and Hero both are overwhelmed not just by the love they have found with each other, and the love they feel for their child, but also by the fragility of life and happiness.

Sebastian can never forget that he has now given hostages to fortune when he is called upon to participate in another dangerous investigation. Wealthy and socially ambitious plantation owner Stanley Preston has been decapitated in an out-of-the-way locale called Bloody Bridge, and Sebastian discovers a clue at the scene of the crime --- a piece of leather coffin strap inscribed with the name of Charles I, the king who a almost two centuries earlier was deposed and beheaded by Oliver Cromwell. By an odd coincidence, Preston was a man obsessed with collecting historical relics related to the Stewart kings, including what is alleged to be the head of Cromwell.

The mystery thickens when Hero's father, Lord Jarvis, the power behind the throne of the Prince Regent, informs Sebastian that workmen at Windsor Castle recently discovered the long lost coffin of Charles I, hidden in the tomb of Henry VIII and his Queen Jane Seymour, beneath St. George's Chapel. And the corpse of the Stewart king is missing its head.

In addition to solving Preston's murder, Sebastian is now charged with recovering the missing head before the Prince Regent comes to inspect the coffin. But the investigation is complicated by the reappearance of a deadly enemy from Sebastian's past, and the reluctant testimony of a shrewd spinster with remarkable powers of observation and a secret of her own to protect.

Another winning entry in a series that continues to combine history, mystery and romance.

 Click HERE to read a review from Kirkus.

Click HERE to read a review from the Life Is Story web site.

Click HERE to read an interview on ShelfPleasure.com with author C.S. Harris talking about Who Buries the Dead and the future adventures of Sebastian and Hero.

Good Man Friday by Barbara Hambly

Good Man Friday: A Benjamin January Novel by Barbara Hambly --- 250 pages

The latest in Hambly's Benjamin January series of historical mysteries set in New Orleans between the Louisiana Purchase and the Civil War lives up to the high standard set by its predecessors.

A first rate mystery about a man gone missing and presumed dead in Washington City, as it was then known. Henri Viellard, the protector of January's beautiful half-sister Dominique, according to the French Creole "custom of the country" in New Orleans, hires January to accompany himself and his wife Chloe to Washington City to search for Selwyn Singletary, an eccentric Englishman whom they hold in high regard. Although they have never met, Chloe has been corresponding with Mr. Singletary for many years on subjects mathematical.

Hambly's historical acumen adds fascinating embellishments to the basic plot. Such luminaries as John Quincy Adams and Edgar Allan Poe appear in supporting roles, along with vivid vignettes of Capitol Hill, Rock Creek, Georgetown and other locales, and stark renderings of the seamier side of early America, including slave traders, grave robbing, insame asylums, and bawdy houses. Plus, Hambly incorporates an early version of baseball into her narrative, and makes a complex mathemantical cipher the crucial element in solving the mystery.

Highly recommended for those who like their mysteries challenging, their history accurate, and their characters intriguing.