tA Free Man of Color is the first book in the Benjamin January series by Barbara Hambly, and it is awesome. It’s the story of Benjamin January, a middle-aged black musician and surgeon who has just returned to New Orleans, after spending most of his adult life in Paris, after the death of his beautiful wife Ayasha in a cholera epidemic. He’s severely depressed, barely making a living, and struggling with the culture shock of returning to the prejudice-ridden New Orleans after so long in the less racially hierarchical Paris. There’s nothing he wants less than to get involved in the murky waters of a murder investigation.tBut when an unpleasant placée (a wealthy white man’s mistress) named Angelique turns up murdered, he finds himself caught up whether he wills or nils thanks to his attempts to aid Angelique’s patron’s wife, a white woman who was his former student. The case quickly becomes one of life or death for Benjamin, who may end up jailed and executed for the murder despite his innocence.tThe book is meticulously researched, and Hambly is very careful to explain her sources and the choices she has made in representing the complex racial dynamics in 1830s New Orleans. For that reason alone it’s a fascinating read - in many ways the world of these mysteries is one that’s completely alien to the reader, and having her character be an insider who’s become an outsider was an inspired choice for introducing these elements of the story; from his perspective, these things are ordinary, but the “custom of the country” still has the power to shock and horrify him as it does us. tHis frustration with the casual racism of the times and the danger that the color of his skin puts him in in simply walking home was uncomfortably familiar - while it seems that casual murder of people of color is certainly less than it was in the 1830s, the recent murders indicate that not enough has changed despite the two centuries that separate us from then. The lack of interest that the police display in Angelique’s murder (with the notable exception of Shaw, the American investigator in the New Orleans police department, whose own struggles with discrimination give him considerably more sympathy towards the plight of January and the murdered woman) and their collusion with the wealthy elite in crimes against people of color definitely rings some bells that shouldn’t be rung. Ever.tJanuary’s personal distaste for the woman whose death he is investigating makes his determination to resist buckling under the discrimination, outright opposition, and danger he faces even more impressive; regardless of his personal feelings and her personal failings, the young woman was killed and her killer should not go free. He accrues no social, fiscal, or personal benefits by solving her murder (at least until the murderers get the idea to pin Angelique’s dearth on him), and there’s very little I like more than a character who is bound and determined to do the right thing come hell or high water. While some aspects of his character are a little unbelievable (he knows French, English, German, Latin, Spanish, and one or two others that I’ve forgotten over the course of seven books), his adherence to helping those he can and causing no harm to those he can’t forms the core of his character. Naturally, it’s tested over the course of the series, but at least through book seven he’s managed fairly well.tHambly is generally speaking excellent at characterization; her main character is nuanced, and her secondary characters are all given ample amounts of development and backstory, with a variety of backgrounds and a variety of sexualities. January’s best friend, the gifted violinist and opiate addict Hannibal Sefton with the mysterious past, is hopelessly flawed and endlessly appealing. The Prussian fencing instructor Augustus Mayerling, a suspect - and a valuable witness - has secrets of his own which are slowly revealed as he pursues the affections of the lovely (and ecstatically widowed) Madame Madeleine Trepagier. My favorite secondary character, January’s mother Livia, is a beautiful example of the complexity Hambly brings to her characters - she’s judgmental, a vicious gossip, tightfisted, uncaring of her children’s feelings. She disowned her eldest daughter. And she made every single horrible thing that happened to her - and there were a lot of them - turn to her advantage and the advantage of her children, achieving financial success, comfort, and respectability despite her origins as an enslaved sugar-cane harvester.tAs the series progresses the books become more and more adventurous and less and less mysterious. At times, the plots descend into absurdity (Days of the Dead is an excellent example), though certainly not all of the novels are nearly so silly. The thematic content shifts with each book, focusing on a different aspect of cultural in the early and mid-nineteenth century in Louisiana; we’ve got yellow fever, music, miscegenation, Voodoo religion, slave uprisings, and the conflict between Texas and Mexico, among others. Some threads run throughout the series; the cultural, religious, and political clashes between the French Creoles and the influx of Anglo-Americans is prevalent, as is the shift in attitudes towards race over the years, the complex sexual politics of the placées and the men who buy their favors, and January’s struggle between the plantation culture of his youth and the more European worldview he acquired as a young adult.ttOne thing that may be frustrating for readers is the denseness of the prose. Because it’s such an alien culture, there’s a lot of information we as readers need, and that makes it slow reading at times. Moreover, Hambly’s loving attention to detail, while intensely atmospheric and historically fascinating, can bog the narrative down, and her tendency to summarize the events of previous novels in each subsequent novel is somewhat irritating and largely unnecessary. Moreover, readers who approach the series as mystery readers may well be disappointed; some of the turns in A Free Man of Color are improbable or contrived, and the overall pace of the book is less tense than that generally seen in mystery novels. The denouement, however, is excellent and satisfying, and readers approaching the novel as more of an adventure and less of a mystery will not be themselves disappointed.tl;dr - a good read for lovers of historical fiction, an unpleasant reminder of how little times have changed, and a fascinating, complex, well-characterized story. Highly recommended! Warnings for mentions of rape, assault, prostitution, racism, murder, gore, graphic depictions of disease, casual violence, and all other possible unpleasantnesses associated with nineteenth century plantation culture and murder mysteries.
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 New Orleans in search of a murderer who is poised to strike again. I’ve been a fan of Barbara Hambly since I read Dragonsbane. One of the things I admired most about her writing is her methodical attention to detail. A Free Man of Color is no exception. Hambly focuses on the delicate, twilit world of 1830’s New Orleans, managing to capture the city’s exotic strangeness, while maintaining an absolute sense of physical reality. The landed aristocracy and their colored mistresses celebrate Mardi Gras, completely oblivious to the squalor surrounding them. The period detail—fashion, food, manners, music, and voodoo—is rich and decadent, full of sights, textures, sounds and tastes of the city. The prose is a bit clunky at times (“crimson with rage”, etc.), but Benjamin January shines as a good man in a bad situation, trying to do what is right in a society that classifies people according to an intricate scale of color and bloodline from mulatto to octoroon and everything in between. Favorite Line/Image: “Phrasie, don’t be a fool.” Livia thrust herself into the fray, slapped Euphrasie loudly on her plump cheek. Euphrasie fell back, opening her mouth to scream, and Livia picked up the water pitcher from the sideboard. “You scream and I dump this over you.”Clisson, Odile, and Agnes Pellicot promptly retreated to the doorway, hands pressing their mountains of petticoats back for safety. January reflected that they’d all known his mother for thirty years.Euphrasie, too, wisely forbore to scream. Bottom Line: A sharp portrait of curiously nuanced class divisions.
What do You think about A Free Man Of Color (1998)?
I really liked this story and consider the series an unsung jewel in the mystery/suspense genre. Barbra Hambly is a very good writer. She captures the age and place with literary skill. Her New Orleans of that day was informative and vividly depicted as well as thrilling with suspense. I loved the protagonist because he was believable and striking in character. She dug into who he was inside and why. Good character and plot driven combination. Well worth reading more of the Benjamin January mysteries which I certainly intend to do. The only thing wrong was a bit too much lengthy description. I understand that used to be the proper way to write. People were taught to help the reader really feel they were there and visualize the scene but in today's culture with short attention spans it's a drawback. However her descriptions are flawless, just too much for readers in this hurry up quick age.
—Marlene Banks
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 sometimes difficult to keep track of them all. Ben's involvement becomes more and more personal, even as he feels that justice becomes more and more unlikely. One of the things I love most about the series is how the author evokes time and place. New Orleans is definitely a character in the book. We see the old French Creole families' resentment of the brash, uncultured Americans coming into their city. We can hear the Kentucky flatboatmen cursing and fighting along the docks. And we can try to understand the complexities of family and racial ties in a place that looks the other way as a man goes from his wife at one ball to his colored courtesan at another ball, all "the custom of the country." It's heartbreakingly sad, and makes one think about race in today's world, and all the reasons to look the other way at injustice.
—Jacqie
A solid piece of historical fiction, capturing the distinct world and intricate dynamics of 19th century New Orleans. The layering of race goes behind "black" and "white" here--every possible permutation of what we would now call "mixed race" intermingles, in sex and violence and with complex social rules and mores.The book's protagonist, a free man of color named Benjamin January, is a compelling and sympathetic character, but I wish I had found the plot more engaging from the start. At times, I was bogged down by descriptive details, but I was at equal times absorbed by the picture the author painted of a time and place I had no previous knowledge of. A quick, enjoyable read--would be great for a plane ride!
—Nishta Mehra
