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brigdhCrimson 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!
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!
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Date: 2014-09-07 09:11 pm (UTC)I did read the review, but I shouldn't have, because now I REALLY want to read it.
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Date: 2014-09-07 10:09 pm (UTC)Haaaa, yes, that is a problem. IT'S SO GOOD.
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Date: 2014-09-08 08:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-09-08 09:57 pm (UTC)Did you get rejected for Crimson Angel?
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Date: 2014-09-09 08:47 pm (UTC)I did :(
Also, man is getting the actual books complicated. ACSM? DRM? WTF?
no subject
Date: 2014-09-09 08:56 pm (UTC)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.
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Date: 2014-09-10 08:42 pm (UTC)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.
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Date: 2014-09-10 09:45 pm (UTC)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.