Reviewed By: Ruth Jordan - RAM
Dead Water
Amazon US PB Amazon US HC Amazon Canada PB Amazon Canada HC
Barbara Hambly
Class/Genre: Mystery Historical Thriller
Series: Benjamin January Mysteries # 8
August 2004, Bantam Books 320 pages/$25.00
Barbara Hambly is one of our best historical novelists. To catch the cadence of contemporary times is difficult. When an author evokes a feeling of now into centuries past it must be deemed a feat. Her series featuring freedman Benjamin January does just that.
Dead Water opens as January and his new wife Rose are establishing a fledgling school for young girls. It has been their dream and thanks to a windfall they are realizing it. Danger soon knocks at their door. It seems there’s been a robbery. The bank which holds their money has been guttered and will descend into insolvency and take the dreams of the newlyweds with it. Can January use his investigative skills to recover the Bank’s gold?
Chasing the thief will take the Januarys aboard the Silver Moon. She is a steamboat that transports cargo and passengers northwards and into a land of danger. Freedmen can be easily enslaved north of New Orlean’s and both Benjamin and Rose must keep their wits about them at all times.
Hambly doesn’t restrict our journey to the main plot. With a sure pen she writes of slaves, and freedmen, and the fledgling underground railway. She writes of the dangers of the river and the new steam technology. She introduces both heroism and evil with her trip up the Mississippi.
She takes us on a journey through times past that is as relevant now as it was then.
Ruth Jordan - RAM
Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Ruth Jordan - RAM
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