New Orleans…it’s not all King Cakes and muffuletta sandwiches and balconies adorned with wrought-iron lace. Beneath its flamboyant exterior, the city has always had a dark heart and an aura all its own—a humid miasma composed of equal parts dried early morning puke, rotting Spanish moss, and the scent of fresh beignets. New Orleans is…
I recently discovered that one of my favorite authors, Barbara Hambly, had written a couple of historical mysteries using the pseudonym Barbara Hamilton. They’re titled The Ninth Daughter (2009) and A Marked Man (2010). So far as I’ve been able to determine, there’s a third book in the series, Sup with the Devil, to be…
Barbara Hambly’s series of historical mysteries set in 1830s New Orleans are exceptional for their deep sense of setting, their intriguing continuing characters, their direct confrontations with racism, and just plain page-turning storytelling. But besides being terrific mysteries, there are great secondary characters, and a satisfying ongoing romance between detective Benjamin January and scholar Rose…
