Reread July 2021I had a much better experience with this book this time round and found the mystery to be cleverly done. I might explore more of the series.Jan 20172.5 stars. This had an interesting premise and the descriptions of New Orleans itself and its society were interesting, particularly all the different names for different types of racial mix: quadroons and octoroons and mulatto that were used in that period. But the story was excruciatingly slow and jumbled. I've read some science fic...

Re-read this one for mystery book club, and glad I did. Barbara Hambly looks at race, gender and class, framed with a mystery plot. Ben January is unlike any other protagonists I've read, a 40 year old free man of color in 1830's New Orleans who has returned to his hometown after his wife's death in Paris. He is trained as a doctor, but makes his living as a piano player. He has a sister who's a courtesan and one who's a voodooiene. The mystery is complex, with a vast cast of characters. It's so...

I really enjoyed this. It's very nice historical fiction and a pretty good mystery as well. Hambly's writing is excellent. The characterizations are rich and achingly realistic. She does tend (so it seems to me, after reading three of her novels) to indulge in outrageous action scenes for her endings.Benjamin January is the titular free man of color, and at the end I was insufficiently convinced of his need to remain in the hazardous environment of 1833 New Orleans rather than return to Europe,

I first discovered Hambly by reading her fantasy. In fact, the book was Dragonsbane. But, I think her real love is historical fiction because her historical fiction is better. This was the first her historical fiction I read. It is the start of the Ben January series. Ben is a free man of color in recently US brought New Orleans. His mother was a field slave until a white man took an interest in her and brought and freed both her and her two children. The same man paid for Ben's education, both

Prior to reading this book, I knew nothing of "free people of colour" in the Southern USA and in particular New Orleans, where many a white slave owner had a coloured mistress set up in her own home that he visited regularly. Of course, children who were born belonged to the "massa"...he had the choice of sending them to his plantation to work or of allowing them to grow up with their mother. Often both mother and children were freed and able to carry on their own businesses and lives. But all o...

This is a story about property. It about who owns the land, who owns the jewels, the clothes, the bank, the stores, who owns the deeds and titles, and, most importantly, who owns the truth.It’s 1830’s New Orleans and there is one set of rules for those with Caucasian ancestry, another set of rules with African ancestry, and a complicated multi-layer set of rules for those with a mix of those two ancestries, depending very much on what your percentage is, and what, exactly, the shade of color you...

When beautiful and ruthless octoroon Angelique Crozat is found strangled to death in the midst of an opulent Mardi Gras costume ball, dark-skinned Benjamin January—physician, music teacher, and son of a former slave—soon finds himself the prime suspect in her murder. With his freedom and life at stake, January sets out to find the real killer. His quest will take him from the opulent mansions of rich white planters to the huts of voodoo-worshipping slaves, and through the dark streets of 1833 Ne...

A Free Man of Color (1997) is the first of Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January mystery series. There are now over a dozen. I knew I enjoyed Hambly's writing from some of her earlier books, but was a long time beginning this since I don't always care for novels set in the past and this one is set in New Orleans in the 1830s. It was fascinating! New Orleans has an extremely interesting cultural past and historian Hambly brought it all to life!

I always enjoy Barbara Hambly's work, and I'll certainly read more of this series. The setting is richly detailed and convincingly rendered, in a way that supports the story rather than distracting from it. It's also a real mystery, and a fair one -- the clues are there if you're not too carried away by the narrative to stop and look for them.The time at which it's set is an interesting one -- after the Louisiana purchase, the dreaded Americans and their money and their projects are coming into

My book club selection for this month.Previously (and many years ago) I'd read a few of Hambly's early fantasy books, and not been overly impressed - they were OK, but didn't transcend any of the genre standards. After reading 'A Free Man of Color' at a friend's recommendation, I can confirm that yes, Hambly definitely improved over time.Aside from a few suggestions that voodoo curses and/or protective charms may be efficacious, the book does not have fantasy elements - it's historical fiction.

This is one of many books for which I wish there was some greater degree of granularity by which I could rate them. Some comprimise position would be welcome.I spent the better part of this book thinking that I would give it two stars, and a portion nearer the end it sank nearly to one star in my estimation. But Hambly is a clever writer, and she avoided all the worst flaws a mystery can have and gave something of a satisfying ending, so I have to say that I liked it with some qualifications.The...

Benjamin January is a free man of color, recently returned to 1840s New Orleans. The city isn't quite what he remembered. On a large scale, the Americans are moving in, bringing with them their vulgar ways and language and their attitudes towards free and enslaved blacks. On a smaller scale, Ben has lost touch with the intricacies of Creole society, especially the lives of the colored demimonde. All possible worlds collide when Ben is asked to deliver a message to a octaroon girl at a carnivale

WOW!!!One of the most thought provoking historical fictional stories that I've ever read. This book was written for its entertainment value, but the educational aspect should not be overlooked. If you are a student of early American history, pre Civil War New Orleans, and languages, while also enjoying a good ole whodunit, then this series is for you. I consider myself a learned man, but I thank God for Amazon Kindle's built in Dictionary and Wikipedia!!😁😁The protagonist of the series, Benjamin

If you want to read a historical novel that has a carefully researched background, this book is the book for you. I will give you a word of warning however: Do not think that because this book is set in the United States and the characters all speak English that you are reading of characters who share a common culture with you. The world of Louisiana in the 1840's is a very different place and its people think far, far differently than do the people who live there today.If it helps, perhaps your...

Rating: 3* of fiveThe first Benjamin January/Javier mystery set in 1833 New Orleans and featuring a black musician/doctor as our POV character/sleuth.The backstory of this mystery is, in my observation, more interesting than the mystery to be solved. I wasn't able to get into the book on first read, and made it to chapter 3 before shelving it. I re-tried the story, and got all the way through this time. It's a very evocative piece of writing, it's got a lot of characters whose interactions are v...

I've read a few of these books out of order (as I came upon them in used bookstores). The characters and the depiction of the New Orleans society of the time always strike me as stronger than the actually mysteries, but this first entry is especially strong.I'm upgrading this to 5 stars on my reread. I've been reading a lot of historical mysteries lately, and this one strikes me as being exceptionally good, particularly in the recreation of a world. January himself is a deeply sympathetic but al...

Barbara Hambly has written some of my very favorite fantasy novels. She’s also famous for the Benjamin January series, about a free black man who solves mysteries in 1830s New Orleans. I never got around to reading these, despite hearing very positive things, because American historical racism— particularly in the slavery era— is something I find crushingly depressing. Just to be clear: contemporary racism is also depressing. However, there’s certain topics which I personally find really hard to...

I discovered this series by accident, picking up somewhere in the middle of it. Luckily, the books are able to stand on their own without starting at the beginning!Anyway, this book introduces Benjamin Janvier, a free man of color in Jacksonian New Orleans. He is a musician by trade, although he studied in Paris to be a surgeon. He is the pianist at a quadroon ball where one of the demimonde's most sought after plaçees (a free woman of color who is a white man's mistress) is murdered ... and bec...

A reread, which is always rewarding with this particular book. I can't speak to the authenticity of the perspective, but I get this rush when I even just contemplate it: a surgeon, a musician...a former slave, and a man marked by the darkness of his skin in 19th-century New Orleans. Although the colored folk have carved a place for themselves in this city, it is still a place where their women are suitable as no more than contracted mistresses to wealthy landowners, and Benjamin must temper his

This is a reread...which is, in itself, a statement about how much I love this book, in particular and the series as a whole, that I find it worth spending the time to reread. Recently, the beginning books of the Benjamin January series were converted to ebooks and I wasted no time in getting them for my Nook. I just finished the most recent book in the series, Shirt on His Back, at the same time I was reading this first volume and it's interesting to see how much the characters are still so con...