Fever Season (Benjamin January Book 2)

About this book

Benjamin January made his debut in bestselling author Barbara Hamblys A Free Man of Color a haunting mlange of history and mystery. Now he returns in another novel of greed madness and murder amid the dark shadows and dazzling society of old New Orleans... The summer of 1833 has been one of brazen heat and brutal pestilence as the city is stalked by Bronze John--the popular name for the deadly cholera epidemic that tests the healing skills of doctor and voodoo alike. Benjamin Januarys Paris medical training keeps him all night long with the dying at Charity Hospital. Then his work as a music teacher takes him out again into the fetid empty midday streets. Empty except for Cora Chouteau a dark-skinned plantation waif come to town in search of her lover sold in slavery to one of its prominent families. Though Januarys certain shes a runaway he agrees to try to pass a message to the man she seeks. Soon however he learns that Cora is accused of murdering her lecherous master Otis Redfern and poisoning his wife almost to death. And of stealing five thousand dollars and a pearl necklace. Yet it seems that Emily Redfern herself iron-willed and socially ambitious had cause to wish her profligate husband dead. And Cora too--or so the girl insists.... Before Ben can unpick one story from the other Cora disappears into the torrid night. And as storms rage in from the Gulf he is swept into an inquiry that leads into a labyrinth of lives: from the vulgar American Emily Redfern to Madame Delphine Lalaurie flawless jewel of Creole society and from the wisdom of a voodoo queen to the learning of a lovely schoolmistress Coras only true friend. Risking both his life and his freedom Ben pursues the truth through a lush and fevered world of opulent town houses grim cemeteries and raucous taverns. A gilded world of injustice deceit and calumny--and a half-glimpsed horror that far transcends the perils of...Fever Season. Barbara Hambly attended the University of California and spent a year at the University of Bordeaux France obtaining a masters degree in medieval history in 1975. She has worked as both a teacher and a technical editor but her first love has always been history. Ms. Hambly lives in New Orleans and Los Angeles with two Pekingese a cat and another writer. She is at work on her next historical novel Graveyard Dust.