"Free man of color" Benjamin January travels north (dodging slave catchers) to find a girl who vanished and may have joined a utopian spiritualist community that helps slaves escape to Canada while a medium helps believers reconnect with deceased loved ones. But is the medium a fake? And does the fact that members of the community must sign over their property to join suggest there's something less than utopian going on?

I haven't read any books in this series for a long time, so at first some of the relationships were a bit confusing. But it didn't take long to sort out what was going on, and as January moves from New Orleans to a bustling and dangerous New York, to upstate New York - the "burned over district" where new religious movements have swept through the area. The historical details are fascinating and the story provides an interesting exploration of the second Great Awakening and some fun characters, including a wily P.T. Barnum, who knows hokum when he sees it, just as he sees opportunities to charge admission for just about anything. There is lots of suspense, both in the work January must do to find the missing girl and in the constant threat that he will be caught by enterprising slave catchers and sold into slavery - which provides us with an opportunity to reflect on the roots of our present moment in US history.

I could have done with fewer italics and all caps as January's thoughts are brought into the narrative but that was a minor irritant. Altogether an engaging plot, great historical scene-setting, and a fine cast of characters.

I arrived late to Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January historical mystery series. I've only read volumes 17 and 18. Seventeen (Lady of Perdition) was good, but was set up as a Western, which just isn't my genre of choice, so while I enjoyed it, I wasn't sure if I was sold on the series. Volume 18 (House of the Patriarch) has answered that question. I'm going back to read the series from the beginning.

Benjamin January is a free man of color living in pre-Civil War New Orleans. Trained as a surgeon, but also a fine musician, he makes his living giving music lessons, since it is impossible for him to work as a surgeon as a black man. When he does offer medical advice, he has to couch it in phrases like "I was once the valet for a surgeon, and he...." He gets angry a lot. There's no way to take the treatment he faces with equanimity. His wife, a scientist, runs their home as a boarding school for young women of not-quite-top-tier young women whose families are willing to give them an education beyond dancing and embroidery and provides special effects for a local theatre.

The plots are good. But what I most appreciate—if that's the world—is spending time in January's shoes. As a free black man, his freedoms are very limited. He cannot testify in court. If he attacks a white man, that's a hanging offense, regardless of what preceded the attack. And any time he travels away from home, he must be continuously on the lookout for "blackbirders." Toughs who make their money seizing blacks from the street—free or not—and selling them into (or back into) slavery. With many clients, he also has to do a lot of work to meet the social norms of the time. Even with clients who privately treat him as an equal, he has to pass as a slave in public. As I said, he gets angry.

I recommend this series for anyone who reads historical mysteries. It will pull you into a time and a role that can change the way you see the world. Particularly now, when we are living in the era of Black Lives Matter, we need to see what life is like when one is marked and treated as inferior on a daily basis.

I received a free electronic review copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. The opinions are my own. ( )