So, just finished the most recent Barbara Hambly mysteries:
Dead and Buried and
And they were both excellent! These are part of the Benjamen January series, of course, which is set in the 1800s and is my favorite mystery series ever.
Both of these had exactly the same minor flaw: lots of characters that were, in the beginning, hard to keep track of. Eventually you remember who’s who and after that it’s fine.
The former of these two focuses more on Hannibal Sefton and we finally learn something about his past life, so that was interesting. I guess it was starting to feel strange that we didn’t know anything about him, come to think of it. I won’t say the ‘revelation’ at the end came as a shock; it’s hard to imagine any reader being surprised by it, but I didn’t feel that that was a problem. In fact, I sort of thought it added depth to the events of the story to strongly suspect the truth about . . . well, don’t want to give it away; read the book.
Biggest surprise / Biggest disappointment: Augustus Myerling makes an appearance, but there’s NO REFERENCE to his secret (revealed in the first book of the series — A FREE MAN OF COLOR). I was surprised Hambly resisted the urge to add at least an aside to clue the reader in about Myerling! I’ve always liked Augustus Myerling and would have loved to see him get more screen time in this book. In particular, when Ben had to go cross country and Hannibal couldn’t go with him, why not ask Myerling? I’d have liked to see HIM deal with those guys who gave Ben so much trouble on the journey.
Oh, well.
The latter book focuses more on Abishag Shaw and we learn more about HIS past life, against a background of fur trapping and Indians and obsessive vengeance-seeking bad guys. Some unexpected plot twists ensue. I really liked the last line of the book (don’t flip ahead; as always that line will lose its impact unless it comes as it’s supposed to: at the end).
So glad this series is still going strong. My vote for the next book: I want to see the underground railroad stuff become important, and I would particularly appreciate more than a cameo for Myerling. But I get that there are so many neat characters in this series by now that it’s hard to give ’em all the time they deserve.
Before I take another book of the TBR pile, gotta go re-read bits of A FREE MAN OF COLOR.
Please Feel Free to Share:
