This lush and haunting novel tells of a city steeped in decadent pleasures and of a man, proud and defiant, caught in a web of murder and betrayal.
It is 1833. In the midst of Mardi Gras, Benjamin January, a Creole physician and music teacher, is playing piano at the Salle d’Orléans when the evening’s festivities are interrupted—by murder.
The ravishing Angelique Crozat, a notorious octoroon who travels in the city’s finest company, has been strangled to death. With the authorities reluctant to become involved, Ben begins his own inquiry, which will take him through the seamy haunts of riverboatmen and into the huts of voodoo worshipping slaves.
But soon the eyes of suspicion turn toward Ben—for, black as the slave who fathered him, this free man of color is still seen as the perfect scapegoat.
Barbara Hambly has written novels in many genres, from mysteries to science fiction and fantasy. She holds a degree in medieval history from the University of California and teaches at a local college. Her books include The Emancipator’s Wife, a finalist for the Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction, and Fever Season was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year.
Ron Butler is a Los Angeles based actor who works regularly as a commercial and animation voiceover artist and an audiobook narrator. A member of the Atlantic Theater Company, he has over a hundred film and television credits to his name and won an Independent Filmmaker Project Award for his work in the HBO film Everyday People.