"Masked balls, duels, and murder: musician, sleuth, and free man of color Benjamin January is caught up in a shocking crime in this gripping nineteenth-century mystery set in New Orleans.
February, 1841. It's Carnival season in New Orleans. Free man of color Benjamin January—a surgeon turned piano player, with a talent for attracting trouble—is playing at an opulent masked ball when, little to his surprise, a quarrel breaks out between two guests, and his services are requested at a duel. Young planter Bastien Damoreau has accused a recent arrival to town of passing himself off as white—an insult not to be borne.
The duel results in the stranger's death. But when January examines the body, he's disturbed to realize that young Damoreau couldn't possibly be the killer, as the dead man was shot from behind . . .
January knows it's murder, but this is white people's business, and calling attention to himself is not a risk he can afford to take. So when Detective Abishag Shaw asks if he'll investigate, he declines—a decision he will later come to regret."
"December 1840. Surgeon turned piano-player Benjamin January is looking forward to a peaceful holiday with his family. But the arrival of an old friend brings unexpected news—and unexpected danger.
Persephone Jondrette has found Arithmus: a Sudanese man with extraordinary mental abilities who January last saw in France, nearly fifteen years ago, during a ghost-hunting expedition to a haunted chateau. January and his friends survived the experience . . . but Arithmus's benefactor, the British explorer Deverel Wishart, did not. He was discovered dead one morning, his face twisted in horror, and shortly afterwards Arithmus vanished, never to be seen again.
Did Deverel succumb to the chateau's ghosts—or did Arithmus murder him and run away? January is determined to uncover the truth about the tragic incident from his past, and clear his old friend's name—but even he isn't prepared for what happens next . . ."
"Something is amiss with the world's magic. Spells don't work the way they used to—when they work at all. Only the powers of the Crystal Mages remain as they were, powers founded on the use of the mystical element adamis, the harvesting of which has enslaved the peoples of the Twilight Lands. Ravenous beasts have begun to appear, legendary creatures that seem to be proof against any magic. And Clea Stylachos, granddaughter of a great sage of the Twilight people, has reason to fear that the Crystal Mages, instead of seeking to defeat these monsters, are attempting to weaponize them in their quest for power.
Clea's only hope to save her people is a wizard who retains his power, one who will not betray her. But that wizard—Ithrazel the Cursed—wants nothing to do with saving the world, helping a hero, or unraveling the terrible secret at the heart of the Crystal Mages' plans. Clea works to untwist the deadly riddles of magic and monsters—to free her mother's disenfranchised people from slavery under her father's conquering forces. To save her mageborn brother from the Crystal Mages' power; to control a sorcerer legendary for his deed of evil; to keep her own small band of friends one step ahead of her father's troops and the Crystal Order's spells. She is the Iron Princess, and she knows she must prevail or die.
Contains mature themes."
"The bestselling author's epic fantasy trilogy comes to a dramatic end. The 'cold, tense, creeping dread lasts right up until the final confrontation' (Tor.com).
Since the Dark Ones returned, the world has been laid to waste.
The wizards have been slaughtered, cities destroyed, and people have scattered in terror.
Few have witnessed more of the destruction than Rudy and Gil—two ordinary Californians who found their way across the Void, and took up arms in defense of a strange and magical world. She learned the ways of war, while he found within himself the powers of a great wizard. Both of them will need all their strength to survive this final challenge. Ingold, the master wizard, has devised a spell to hide the user from the deathly stare of the Dark, and he intends to use it to strike at their very heart.
Finally, Rudy, Gil, and the rest of mankind's survivors will take the offensive, bringing an end to this terrible war, for better or for worse."
"A whirlwind fantasy classic set in the richest world imaginable, with unforgettable characters and the highest stakes—The Time of the Dark is the first book in Barbara Hambly's epic Darwath Trilogy.
Gil Patterson is a woman familiar with dark stories.
As a student of medieval history, she knows the Crusades, the Black Death, and the horrors of life in the Middle Ages. But it is another kind of darkness has begun to stalk her dreams: when she falls asleep she sees forces of evil assaulting a beleaguered kingdom, whose kind people are on the brink of annihilation, and awakes each morning in a cold sweat.
Gil dismisses the dreams until a wizard appears in her apartment. He has crossed into her dimension, passing through the fraying fabric of the universe, to ask her help. For mankind to survive he must protect an infant prince, whom he plans to hide in Gil's world. The student of history is about to get much closer to evil than she ever imagined."
"A 'tense and nerve-wracking' adventure in the epic fantasy trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of The Time of the Dark (Tor.com).
Once upon a time, Gil and Rudy lived simple lives.
Until they met Ingold, Gil was an ordinary PhD candidate and Rudy was a drifter, whiling away his life riding motorcycles under the California sun. But wizards have a way of complicating things. Ingold brought them across the Void, where an evil known as the Dark threatened to devour civilization whole.
Civilization's hopes rested on an infant prince, and to protect him Gil and Rudy had to draw on newfound powers—she as a warrior, he as a wizard. With Ingold's help they escaped the Dark, and led a hardy band of survivors to a far-away keep, where humanity could be safe for a time.
But now that time is past, they have been found, and there is nowhere to hide from the Dark."
"May, 1924. It’s been seven months since young British widow Emma Blackstone arrived in Hollywood to serve as companion to Kitty Flint: her beautiful, silentmovie star sister-in-law. Kitty is generous, kind-hearted … and a truly terrible actress. Not that Emma minds; she’s too busy
making her academic parents turn in their graves with her new job writing painfully historically inaccurate scenarios for Foremost Studios, in between wrangling their leading lady out of the arms of her army of amorous suitors.
So when one of Kitty’s old flames, renowned film director Ernest Zapolya, calls Emma and tells her it’s imperative he meet with Kitty that morning, she’s not surprised. Until, that is, he adds that lives depend on it. Ernest sounds frightened. But what can have scared him
so badly—and what on earth does cheerful, flighty Kitty have to do with it?
Only Ernest can provide the answers, and Kitty and Emma travel to the set of his extravagant new movie to find them. But the shocking discovery they make there only raises further questions … including: will they stay alive long enough to solve the murderous puzzle?"
"No one can talk to the dead … can they? Freeman of color Benjamin January gets caught up in a strange, spiritual world that might lead to his own demise, as he hunts for a missing teenager in this gripping, atmospheric historical mystery.
New Orleans, 1840. Freshly home from a dangerous journey, the last thing Benjamin January wants to do is leave his wife and young sons again. But when old friends Henri and Chloë Viellard ask for his help tracking down a missing girl in distant New York, he can’t say no.
Three weeks ago, seventeen-year-old Eve Russell boarded a steamboat—and never got off it. Mrs. Russell is adamant that Eve has been kidnapped, but how could someone remove a teenager from a crowded deck in broad daylight? And why would anyone target Eve?
The answer lies in New York, a hotbed of new religions and beliefs, of human circuses and freak shows, and of “blackbirders” who will use any opportunity to kidnap a freeman of color and sell him into slavery. January is determined to uncover the truth, but will he ever be able to return to New Orleans to share it?"
"RAN AWAY. So began a score of advertisements every week in the New Orleans newspapers, advertising for slaves who’d fled their masters. But the Turk, Hüseyin Pasha, posted no such advertisement when his two lovely concubines disappeared. And when a witness proclaimed he’d seen the “devilish infidel” hurl their dead bodies out a window, everyone was willing to believe him the murderer. Only Benjamin January, who knows the Turk of old, is willing to seek the true culprit, endangering his own life in the process."
"“You shall never have a penny of my money. Leave me alone or I will shoot you dead!”
1924. After six months in Hollywood, young British widow Emma Blackstone has come to love her new employer, glamourous movie-star Kitty Flint—even if her late husband’s sister is one of the worst actresses she’s ever seen. Looking after
Kitty and her three adorable Pekinese dogs isn’t work academically mindedEmma dreamed of, but Kitty rescued her when she was all alone in the world. Now, the worst thing she has to worry about is the shocking historical inaccuracies of the films Kitty stars in.
Until, that is, Rex Festraw—Kitty’s first husband, to whom she may or may not still be married—turns up dead in her dressing room, a threatening letter seemingly from Kitty in his pocket.
Emma’s certain her flighty but kindhearted sister-in-law has been framed. But who by? And why? From spiteful rivals to jealous boyfriends, the suspects are numerous. But as Emma investigates, she begins to untangle a deadly plot—and
there’s something Kitty’s not telling her …"
"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."
"New Orleans, 1836. When free black musician and surgeon Benjamin January attends the funeral of a friend, an accident tips the dead man out of his coffin—only to reveal an unexpected inhabitant. Just one person recognizes the corpse of the white man: Hannibal Sefton, fiddle-player and one of January’s closest friends. But he seems unwilling to talk about his connection to the dead man …"
