Barbara, Hambly. Benjamin January. #bk. 10

Read by Ron Butler

Benjamin January, a free Black man, physician, and musician in the American South in the antebellum years of the 1830s, ends up far away from New Orleans caught up in new adventures out West. Abishag Shaw is seeking vengeance for his brother's murder-and Benjamin January is seeking money after his bank crashes. Far beyond the frontier, in the depths of the Rocky Mountains, both men are to be found at the great Rendezvous of the Mountain Men, a month-long orgy of cheap booze, shooting matches, tall tales, and cut-throat trading. But at the rendezvous, the discovery of a corpse opens the door to hints of a greater plot-of madness and wholesale murder. "Superb…As January struggles to survive fatigue, starvation, and assorted psychological horrors, Hambly convincingly shows that revenge must finally give way to justice." "This flamboyant historical series is again full of period detail. Hambly paints a vivid, convincing picture of the life of free Blacks before the Civil War." "An absorbing if appalling look at whiskey debauchery, suspect rifle trading, smallpox devastation, a mass poisoning endeavor, the decimation of the beaver population, and grisly confrontations with warring tribes, all of which surround a classic whodunit."

Mode of access: World Wide Web