A smart female detective on the job in a grim New Orleans

New Orleans Mysteries

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The first eight books in the series were published by Bantam Press , with the subsequent four being published by Severn House Publishers. The Benjamin January mysteries series consists of sixteen novels and five short stories to date. All the short stories are also available for download on Hambly's website. The series, beginning with A Free Man of Color , follows Benjamin January, a brilliant, classically educated free colored surgeon and musician living in New Orleans during the belle epoque of the s, when New Orleans had a large and prosperous free colored demimonde.

January was born a slave but freed as a young child and provided with an excellent education; he is fluent in several classical and modern languages and thoroughly versed in the whole of classical Western learning and arts. Although trained in Paris as a surgeon, he has returned to Louisiana to escape the memory of his dead Parisian wife. As he is a very dark-skinned black man, in Louisiana he cannot find work as a surgeon. Instead, he earns a modest living by his exceptional talent and skill as a musician.

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Each title is an entertaining murder mystery with a complex plot and well-developed characters, and each explores many aspects of French Creole society. However, most tend to emphasize some particular element of antebellum Louisiana life, such as Voodoo religion Graveyard Dust , opera and music Die Upon a Kiss , the annual epidemics of yellow fever and malaria Fever Season , fear of miscegenation Dead and Buried , or the harsh nature of commercial sugar production Sold Down the River.

New Orleans, despite appearances, is NOT a mystery city.

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AmazonGlobal Ship Orders Internationally. I found one just three blocks from my house, a luxuriously outfitted riverboat on the Mississippi. Skip Langdon is that confusion made flesh, an overly tall, underly delicate Garden District product who becomes a New Orleans police officer instead of a Junior League member. Subscribe to the Monitor Weekly. Like what you see here? Still, in my previous three books I wrote exclusively about the dark side of things, and that got really boring.

It is mysterious, yes, perhaps the most mysterious, enigmatic city in North America, but New Orleans is not a place, a state of mind, an attitude, that fits with the idea of literary mystery. A mystery, to be successful and satisfying, must have plot, movement, resolution. An intriguing question must be posed and answered.

The inexorable forward movement of investigation is alien to the unreflective, unchanging nature of New Orleans. They come to New Orleans in droves, especially at Halloween. Rice has bought and redone six buildings in New Orleans, including her childhood home. She lives in a gorgeous antebellum house in the Garden District at First and Chestnut streets everybody knows the house and points it out.

She has another mansion on St. Charles that is used for parties and business. Combined with the enduring fame of Tennessee Williams, Rice has kept the idea of New Orleans as a literary city in the forefront of the public imagination. Unlike many popular assumptions, this one is absolutely true.

Benjamin January mysteries

New Orleans has been hometown, adopted home and spiritual incubator to two centuries of first-class writers. Henry had strong ties to the city in the 19th century. Through some kind of collective unconsciousness, they have realized that the magic of New Orleans can only be effective if used carefully and sparingly. Like spicy Louisiana peppers, a little can make a dish and a lot can ruin it.

Julie Smith is unquestionably the most successful New Orleans mystery writer at work today. It won the Edgar for Best Novel, making Smith the first American woman to win that category and it is the big prize since Skip Langdon is that confusion made flesh, an overly tall, underly delicate Garden District product who becomes a New Orleans police officer instead of a Junior League member.

Her killer stalks victims through the groups that provide intimacy and anonymity: Axeman has an undeniable New Orleans flavor but Smith has given her situations and characters a universality that makes them instantly familiar and understandable. Tubby is a lawyer more interested in a good time than his practice, making for a graceful fusion of the accidental detective with the New Orleans milieu. Dunbar is a attorney himself who has written several important nonfiction books about Southern history and culture Delta Time , Against the Grain: Southern Radicals and Prophets , etc.

Tubby is introduced in Crooked Man G.

Unhappily divorced, fond of his three daughters, always ready for a good meal, Tubby worries about his family, his non-love life, his erratic finances, but none of it too much. City of Beads G. Other than the name calling, the plot and characters are colorful and this adventure is fast moving. Also there's a list of French names and definitions which are interesting Amazon Giveaway allows you to run promotional giveaways in order to create buzz, reward your audience, and attract new followers and customers.

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