NetGalley Review: Crimson Angel by Barbara Hambly

[brigdh]

Crimson Angel, by Barbara Hambly, is the thirteenth and latest book in the Benjamin January mysteries. Like all of the books in this series, you could read it without having read the others. However, it's a much better book if you come into it knowing who the characters are, their relationships, and their backstories.

In New Orleans in 1838, Benjamin January and his wife Rose are doing well enough despite a nation-wide financial disaster. They're visited by Rose's half-brother, who is convinced that old rumors of a treasure buried on their family's long-abandoned sugar plantation on Haiti are real, and he wants the Januaries to come with him to find it. Ben does not approve of this plan:

Jefferson Vitrack was a white man, and so January refrained from saying, "That’s the stupidest idea I’ve ever heard."
Instead he simply said, "No."
"Your journey would not go unremunerated," Vitrack hastened to assure him. "Whatever we find, you will be entitled to half of it for your trouble. I understand it’s a dangerous undertaking, particularly as you would be going into Haiti alone. As a white man, it would be impossible for me—"
"And as a black man," finished January gently, "the moment I set foot in Cuba, I would be at extreme risk of being kidnapped and shipped as a slave either back to the United States – where I promise you, nobody is going to ask if I’ve been enslaved illegally or not – or more likely to Brazil. The danger would be ten times worse for Rose."

But despite Ben's efforts to avoid any adventures, things quickly begin to go wrong: strange men spy on the January house, Vitrack is killed, and Rose is attacked in the marketplace. Ben and Rose flee first to her childhood home on Grand Isle in southern Louisiana, but when they're followed there too, they decide that the only way to survive is to figure out the truth behind the stories about the treasure. They dig into the history of Rose's (incredibly complicated) family tree, as well as rumors of an evil "Dr Maudit", who may or may not be fictional, but who seems to somehow be connected to whatever happened back in 1791. But solving the mystery requires them head to Cuba, eventually ending up on Haiti itself. They take along their white friend Hannibal Sefton for protection and cover: he poses as their "master", Rose as his concubine, and Ben as his valet, a disguise which is less fraught than it has been in previous books, and which they mostly treat as a joke (their interactions are so great throughout the whole book. I adore their friendship):

"I met a woman in the tavern, fell in love, and married her," reported January. [...] "I hope you don’t mind?"
Rose assumed an expression worthy of Sarah Siddons at her most tragic, put a hand to her forehead, and collapsed into January’s arms.
"Now see what you’ve done," said Hannibal mildly, and he felt the side of January’s coffee pot to see if the contents were still drinkable. "And me without smelling salts." The cook’s youngest daughter appeared momentarily in the archway that led to the traspatio, then darted off, to fetch two more cups.
Rose sat up on January’s knee. "I have a good mind not to tell you about Don Demetrio."
"My new wife was tragically run over by a railway train."
"That’s better."

I loved this book. It has a slow start, and I'm not sure changing locations so many times helped it, but there were so many wonderful elements. And everything that happens after they arrive on Haiti is AMAZING (I want to go into detail, but I think it might be better to leave it unspoiled; suffice it to say that if you ship Ben/Rose/Hannibal, it's excellent). As always with this series, there are elements of fun adventure novels: Kidnappings! Cross-dressing! Disguises! Secret messages in obscure languages! Voodoo! Dramatic gun battles! But there's also always a serious consideration of ethics and the historical setting. This time Hambly focuses on slavery, specifically as it was practiced on Haiti, and the country's difficult history during and after the revolution. The themes of the book are pretty much perfectly summed in this scene near the end:

He looked up and saw Hannibal watching him with those quiet dark eyes, bruised with fatigue and blacker than any coffee he’d ever seen. "Why does it bother me?" he asked softly.
"Because it should"’ the fiddler replied. [...] "I’m sure Rose’s esteemed great-grandfather would have claimed that he needed his birthright just as badly. The law proclaims that it is wrong to keep the profits of a crime, not out of spite toward the guilty, but because keeping the proceeds is an incentive – a permission – for others to commit crimes for the sake of the rewards. And it is perilously easy to commit crimes against the helpless. This island was built on them."

An excellent book, and highly recommended.

ARC read via Netgalley. NetGalley is a website where you can sign up (for free!) and find an abundance of electronic ARCs offered by publishers in the hopes of garnering reviews/word of mouth/library buys/etc. I highly recommend it if you read ebooks!

Comments

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

Rose assumed an expression worthy of Sarah Siddons at her most tragic, put a hand to her forehead, and collapsed into January’s arms.

... and I suddenly but irrevocably want a theatre AU wherein Rose is the world's most sensible tragedienne, Ben is a director (or a playwright?) and Hannibal a v. dignified and knowledgeable groupie.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

Although, tbh, Rose is much more likely to become a special effects person. Minou and Olympe could both be actresses though! Livia too!

I don't know what Shaw is but I kind of want to say theatre critic.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

YES EXCELLENT IDEA. Modern AU or canon-era?

I kind of love Rose the melodramatic actress who is completely dry and calm off-stage, but yeah, she is more into special effects. She would be the most competent stage manager ever, and they are generally very competent! Hannibal could work as an actor too – he already has everything memorized. And he would have sooooo many female fans.

Minou and Olympe have completely opposed approaches to acting and opinions on art, but they have managed to stop arguing about it.

I totally love critic for Shaw for the power dynamic, but it doesn't quite work with his, hmmm, "uncultured" vibe. Maybe, like, some sort of manager – arranging for all the permissions and bills and, like, non-art parts, but still having to answer for ticket sales to some Board of Directors.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

OKAY HOW ABOUT THIS: everyone is an actor. Olympe is one of those channel-the-spirit-of-the-character prophetic actors; Minou is v. interactive and responds to all the nuances of co-actors' performances, and she's v. good at slapstick. Benjamin is really methodical, he reads the text and some carefully chosen analyses, he talks to people about it, he is careful to know the historical context. He's not entirely happy being cast as Romeo, because, seriously, who even likes Romeo? BUT then his BFF Hannibal auditions for Mercutio and gets it and the whole thing looks more bearable.

Angelique is supposed to be Juliet, but she leaves due to personal problems (this is a v. happy AU wherein nobody dies) (Ayasha is temporarily touring in Europe, doing costuming), and Benjamin is left Romeoing all alone. Rose is a retired actor from NY, she teaches kids enunciation, she auditions due to money issues and gets it against all odds. She's kind of awkward during the audition, but Benjamin feels drawn to her somehow. Then they do the meeting at the ball scene, and it's _amazing_ - Rose plays Juliet as, like, sarcastic and intrigued but careful, and suddenly Benjamin knows exactly how to build his character to respond to that, they create a thing where everyone is mature and world-weary and exhausted by the clan-warring, and kind of nihilistic about everything. It goes against the theme of the play, but the director - Ms. Laveau - approves.

Hannibal performs an amazing Queen Mab monologue and after that everything is Shakespeare and OT4.

(this is definitely a modern AU. Canon AU sounds heartbreaking, because there's such a narrow range of roles for everyone and they definitely could not be in New Orleans for it - - unless it was a thing with, like, Benjamin the secret anonymous playwright that everyone assumes is white.)

(Good point about Shaw. It works with his lack of grooming! But not with his, yes, lack of literary training. He COULD be one of those, like, run-on-sentence hippie type critics, but I think he's opposed to obscuring information, so it doesn't really work.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

AHHH GENIUS. EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS IS 100% PERFECT.

(Yes, I agree that modern AU works better. There's also the starving artist thing – unless it's, like, Broadway, who goes to modern theater? And they can be snarky about movie actors getting all the attention.)(Although Ben the secret writer does have it's own appeal.)

Who should everyone else play? Olympe could be a great Father Laurence, or maybe the Prince. The Father is a bigger part, but I also like the Prince because he and Mercutio are often linked – lots of "worthless child" opportunities.

I feel like Minou could be a great Nurse, but she's probably too young. Hmmm, there's not a lot of female parts. Maybe Benvolio? Minou/Benvolio giving Ben/Romeo advice on his love life is pretty adorable. Livia could be one of the moms, I suppose. Or the Prince! That would work too.

(Yeah, I was trying to picture Shaw as maybe some against-the-establishment running-his-own-blog independent critic type, but it still requires him to be more into art and theory than I feel like he usually is. Maybe he's self-taught and it's a thing he does after whatever his job is?)(If we could make Shaw an actor too, I think he would be a great fit for Tybalt. I'm not sure who else to put in that role otherwise.)

AHHH Hannibal doing the "They have made worms' meat of me" speech! Ben's "Then I defy you, stars!"! Rose's very calm and determined final speech. I really want this to be a thing.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS MINOU IN DRAG AS BENVOLIO, OH YES, VERY YES, MUCH YES. She'd have gossipy scenes with Hannibal! Maybe Augustus as Tybalt? His and Minou's canon interactions were minimal but sweet, and I'd loooove to see his take on fiery Tybalt, more than prince of cats.

I can't imagine Shaw as an actor! Like, would he be able to drop the accent? It's just that he's so inflexible in canon. I don't mean morally - he is actually really good at adjusting his decisions to the circumstances, which is why we love him - but, just, he always looks and talks and dresses the same way, he spits badly and he shoots well, and it's a very intentional thing - I'm sure he could present differently, since he's great at catching social nuance. But he doesn't, because he likes being underestimated, and also possssibly because fuck the establishment.

And, just, would he be able to re-shape himself enough to be an actor? Maybe, but not sure if he'd enjoy it. He can be a stage manager or something else that fits his v. detail-oriented behind-the-curtains genius.

I love Olympe as a really furious compassionate Laurence. She could also lead the prologue - imagine her saying 'Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.' auhahaduad aah.

Livia I think would quit theatre at her prime - like, one great Lady Macbeth performance, and then retirement, except for when she's invited for leading roles. Mostly she just sits in the front row on premier night, tears apart Minou and Ben's performances and ignores Olympe hardcore.

Meanwhile, yessss, everyone is a starving artist except Minou, whose husband is rich and smitten and she sometimes plays, like, zany best friend roles in romcoms, although she is very picky about which respectable romcoms she will grace with her presence. She invites Ben to dinner a lot, but mostly he stays in his tiny apartment which still feels too big in Ayasha's absence, just him and the cat and all the postcards Ayasha sent with snarky behind-the-stage anecdotes and little drawings. (I decided that Ayasha draws well! Like, caricatures mostly, but there's also some portraits.)

Rose and Hannibal come over to cook, and somehow they never leave, and Ben sends Ayasha long emails about it, and she tracks down pictures of Rose - in her amazing New York performance of Dr Faustus - and says like >:D YES WE SHALL KEEP HER, ALSO CAN WE FINALLY START SLEEPING WITH HANNIBAL (um, except a bit more refined than that, though not much more refined), and Ben had always treated Ayasha and Hannibal's threesome discussions as a joke, but then he finally realises all the amazing opportunities available to them.

[lavode.livejournal.com]

Maybe Augustus as Tybalt?

Oh hell yes. Maybe Livia could be their difficult sponsor and tell them which plays they should do and how, and who they should hire? (And Olympe could be the daughter she disowned for not wanting to go into the family business and thus perpetually blacklisted by her mother. Apparently my AU ideas get tropier the more tired I get, but I'd love this fanfic if someone with better plot skills wrote it.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

(Okay, I took forever to answer this because I suck. Also the internet kept going down. But mostly it was my laziness.)

ALL OF YOUR IDEAS YES. August is a perfect Tybalt! He totally could do the "cold anger in defense of his family's honor" thing, but I could also see him and Rose being close, loving cousins. (Do he and Rose ever meet in canon? That should happen.) And I thiiiiiiiink it might be canon that Tybalt and Mercutio used to be friends, but possibly I'm confusing that with one of the not!Shakespeare versions of the story.

Livia totally is retired, that's great. She shows up to red carpets to be photographed in designer clothes and then leaves at intermission if she doesn't like the show, and everyone is terrified they'll be next to get her disapproval. Madame Laveau's theater is not grand enough to get paparazzi, and Livia doesn't know why Ben and Minou are wasting their time there.

YES. Henri privately helps fund the theater, which drives Ben crazy, but... it's so hard to find other sources of funding! Henri is some sort of businessman who has inherited the family company; Chloe is his assistant who really runs everything. They come to all of Minou's shows even though neither one is actually all that into theater.

I looooooooove epistolary fic, so now I want the whole thing to be New York scenes interspersed with emails from Ayasha. I think she and Hannibal would get along so well. I mean, so would she and Rose (ALSO ROSE AS DR FAUSTUS IS THE BEST THING EVER), but Hannibal really has a marked preference for women who are competent at whatever it is they do, assertive, and who tease him.

Ben has a fold-out couch for the many times Hannibal needs somewhere to spend the night, and there is lots of platonic Rose/Hannibal bed-sharing and foursome pining before the happy end.

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

Augustus and Rose haven't interacted in-text as far as I know, but I'm sure they'd admire each other's elegant sangfroid. In fact, my theory is that Madeleine is a little bit into Rose, and Augustus is a little bit into Ben, PROBABLY NOT ENOUGH FOR A FOURSOME but who knows! (Like, Madeleine is also clearly into Ben, and Ben is a bit into her, and I'm pretty sure Augustus and Rose would be into, like, elegant sangfroid sex together, but it sounds too emotionally/socially complicated to happen in canon era.)

LIVIA AND RED CARPET FASHION, YESSSSS PERFECT. I feel like modern Livia probably reads alllllll the gossip sites and possibly contributes to Go Fug Yourself, or some more refined version of ONTD.

YES Henri and Chloe both have atrocious and clueless theatre opinions, Ben likes them really but has to go outside for air frequently when talking to them.

Hannibal would be sooooooooo into Ayasha. Maybe she draws him in charcoal in elf form, and Hannibal keeps it in his violin case. But Ben doesn't catch up to the polyamory idea until he meets Rose! Yesss, there is definitely a short period of pining, and then they have to buy a bigger bed.

(Ayasha and Rose is such an interesting ship too. Rose is very into assertive women with difficult pasts! And she's very into people who're good at what they do, whatever they do, so I think she'd observe Ayasha working a lot, and then v. careful costume room sex.)

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

MMMMMMM COSTUME ROOM SEX. Yes good. And Hannibal keeping the drawing in his violin case! Ben notices and is like "If you've kept it, why don't you hang it up somewhere?" And Hannibal shrugs off the question without quite answering, but he moves too often to feel like it's safe anywhere else.

Speaking of costume rooms, is this a modern dress version of Romeo & Juliet? (And if so, does Ayasha snark about it and send Ben links to articles on dress in medieval Italy?) Or some other random setting? Or just plain Shakespearean?

[somebraveapollo.livejournal.com]

HMMM GOOD COSTUMING QUESTION.

On the one hand: Rose in a corset! On the other: Ben in a leather jacket.

I don't know, have to consider this further.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

You make two very excellent points! Mmmmmmm.

[lavode.livejournal.com]

Would everyone be aged down (I mean, Ben can't really play Romeo at age 45)? Either way, he probably would get theoretical about it and study his favourite actors carefully to see what they did right, and then feel terrible in comparison. (And then Rose would probably tell him, "well, so stop watching those old video tapes if they make you feel bad."

And then the director tells them to keep their relationship platonic off stage, because they have great chemistry but it might not work anymore if they broke up or had a fight, and this makes them glow twice as much while they're performing. Just as she was hoping.)

Hannibal performs an amazing Queen Mab monologue

Oh, I want this!

Shaw might not be very good at a job where he had to express opinions all the time, but I think making him act on stage could be hilarious. It's probably well out of his comfort zone.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

(Sorry I took so long to reply to this! I got distracted.)

Hmm, I think you're right; they all do need to be aged down. Though I was googling for examples and apparently Meryl Steep played Juliet only two years ago! It seems like just for the celebrity value though, not because they were trying to make a point or say anything.

Anyway, I don't think you have to age them down too much – late twenties/early thirties is unremarkable, and it seems unusual for professional productions to cast younger than earlier twenties.

I love the idea of Ben studying tapes of other performances; that's perfect. And it's true – Shaw really does prefer to keep his opinions to himself, doesn't he? Not a good trait for a critic.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

I really should get a NetGalley account. *closes eyes to post so as to avoid spoilers*

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Do, do! It's free and simple and I can't imagine the publisher is being very strict with who they allow to read it, if they sent it to me. It's also supposed to be out now in the UK, though the ebook hasn't shown up on amazon.co.uk yet. But I can't imagine it'll take much longer.

The review's spoiler-free, other than the basic premise. Though sometimes I don't even want to know that much, so I understand if you don't want to read it!

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

I did! I'v requested a number of books, we'll see what happens.

I did read the review, but I shouldn't have, because now I REALLY want to read it.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Good luck! I remember getting most, but not all, of the books I requested.

Haaaa, yes, that is a problem. IT'S SO GOOD.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

So far I've been mostly rejected, but then I have no netgalley reviews to my name and my profile is very minimalist. I did snag a book that comes out tomorrow though, which I was quite surprised about.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

The impression I've gotten is that some publishers are just much more picky than others. Some of them seem to send their books to anyone who asks, and others have really high requirements. I always want to request everything at once, but then I end up with more books than I can read in a reasonable amount of time.

Did you get rejected for Crimson Angel?

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

Hum, yes, I seem to be headed this way. Oops. (To be fair, my free time took a drastic cut this week, so any books is more than I can read in a reasonable amount of time.)

I did :(

Also, man is getting the actual books complicated. ACSM? DRM? WTF?

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

That sucks! I wonder what the problem was.

Ha, yeah. DRM is Digital Rights Management – it's sort of a like a lock on the book to keep it from being shared with other people. (Though, uh, it's not actually that hard to get off, but I suppose the average consumer tends not to make the effort.) .acsm is a file type that works with Adobe Digital Editions, which is a free program you can get here (http://www.adobe.com/solutions/ebook/digital-editions.html). Though why they can't just use epub/mobi, God alone knows. Actually I suspect .acsm is easier to use DRM with, as library books I've gotten also were .acsm. It's still a really annoying file type.

[dhampyresa.livejournal.com]

It could be that my review/approval score is 0.

I know what they are, I just boggle at why anyone would use them. They just make things so much more complicated for your (legal) costumers.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

Mmm, true. But someone has to be first! Everyone starts out at 0.

I have so much more trouble with my legally acquired books. I have about 10 on my Nook that I purchased from B & N and no longer want, and so would very much like to delete for the memory space, but I Cannot. Figure. Out. How. They even survived the time my Nook crashed and I had to reload the OS.

[lavode.livejournal.com]

This sounds fun and shippy and different, especially if we finally get to learn a little more about Rose's family and her background. I can't wait.

[wordsofastory.livejournal.com]

It's soooooo good! I can't wait until more people have read it and we can all talk about it!