Graveyard Dust

This is No. 3 in Hambly's Benjamin January series. Unfortunately, the shortcomings I noted in the first two books continue here, and I just couldn't keep going this time. The setting really appeals to me, and January is an interesting character. But I find Hambly's style monotonous; secondary characters don't come to life and I lose track of who's who because they mostly get talked about, not seen in action; again I was finding her emphasis on the obvious heavy-handed and repetitive. Free people of color in 19th century New Orleans had as much reason to fear for their safety as slaves, or former slaves, yeah I get it---even when she shows the reader that this is true, she finds it necessary for her characters to tell us what we just show more saw. I couldn't make myself care who killed Isaak (if he's even dead, which I doubt) and I was fairly sure that somehow January would get his sister cleared of the charge, but I wasn't too curious about how....so I quit about 150 pages in. This series should be much better than it is, and it makes me sad. Despite my interest in the multi-leveled milieu of the time and place, which carried me through A Free Man of Color, I barely made it to the end of Fever Season, and could not finish Graveyard Dust. It just isn't enough of a factor to keep me reading these rather tedious books. show less

I appreciated Ms. Hambly's sensitive treatment of voodoo, which parallels my own experience of it in Kumasi, Ghana in the late 70s. She did have an error on the Biblical side; it wasn't Gideon, but Joshua, who made the sun stand still. (p.243)
I have my favorite bits - the protagonist's slow healing from grief, for one, but pain is described just as well, such as "Or was she still treating her son with frozen politeness tempered by martyered courage?" (p.296)
Ms. Hambly says things I want to believe - "Forgiveness is stronger than the graveyard dust of the past" (p.303) One of the reasons I read novels is to see this demonstrated, because it's so hard to believe.

This is the third book in the Benjamin January series and I am even more impressed than ever how Hambly is able to put you in the mind of a free man of color in 1830s Louisiana, which has just become a state that has been "invaded" by the Americans, according to the old Creole families who are quite set in their ways and see the Americans as crude and uncivilized. In this book, she explores the world of Voodoo.

January's sister, Olympe, a Voodoo healer, has just been arrested for selling poison to a free woman of color, Celie, in order for her to kill her husband, Isaak Jumon, whose body has not been found, yet. Jumon's brother Antoine, while drunk, and possibly drugged is captured and led to a house where he finds his brother dying with show more his wife's words on his lips. Now, Isaak is set to inherit land and money from his white father, which has caused his mother to claim him as her slave that has run away, in order to get his inheritance. His white uncle, whom Isaak is close to is doing his best to help January, but he also has a stake in this inheritance.

January seeks help from various places, including the Creoles, the Voodoo Priestess Marie Laveau, and runaway slaves who have knowledge of where Isaak was during his last days. January, may be a Catholic now, but he was living on the plantation before being freed, he participated in some of the celebration dances with the compelling drums and music that speaks to a part of his soul. Someone curses his room with graveyard dust, which is a death curse, and while he would like to think he does not believe in these things, deep down he does. Marie is called in to help cleanse the room and recommends that he wear protection, but he refuses, as his Catholic sensibilities will not allow him to do so.

While Olympe languishes in a prison that has an outbreak of yellow fever that is being covered up, the clock is ticking and if these two women go to trial, they will surely be found guilty just for the color of their skins and the fact that Olympe practices Voodoo. A body is found and Isaak's mother claims that it is him, but it is not. So where is he and what has happened to him? January discovers that he did spend some time in a hidden spot of New Orleans where runaway slaves go, but has no idea of where he went from there. There is also another player in this game: an evil Voodoo practitioner who is up to no good.

January does not have a lot of time to find the clues that will lead to who killed Isaak and save his sister and Ceclie and he lacks the usual help he gets from Lieutenant Shaw, who is away on some other matter that January knows nothing about. This book gives you an inside look into the world of Voodoo, both the good and the bad sides of it. And the mystery of Isaacs's possible death and mysteriously missing body only add to strangeness going on in a town where strangeness is the norm.

January must avoid a group of men who are trying to kill him in order to keep him from finding out the truth, which is way bigger than the death of one man. Will January be able to save the two women's practically guaranteed death sentence or will the Voodoo death curse come and claim him before he can? show less

5 stars for atmosphere, 1 star for plot. Which is to say the five or seven wandering subplots that are supposed to link up don't. Disability tag for "Hollywood" disability, wherein characters with major conditions manage the physically impossible in return for narrative payoff.

Benjamin Janvier's sister Olympe has been arrested for murder. She's been accused of using voodoo to kill the husband of a young woman who stands to inherit a nice estate, if she's not hung first. Benjamin knows that no one else will bother to help a voodoo woman, so if he doesn't try to save his sister from hanging, her case is hopeless. But while he's investigating the darker corners of pre-Civil War New Orleans, someone has marked him for his own voodoo curse. And if that doesn't work, a knife in the back will do the trick just as well.

I really like this one. Creepy stuff going on here! Benjamin is a great character. Can't wait for the next one.

The world and characters a vividly drawn and well-researched; the mystery is engaging. But I had a lot of trouble keeping all the characters straight and I'm still not sure I completely understand the mystery itself--I've never been more grateful for the "detective sums it all up" final chapter.

Not my favorite of the series so far, I think it was simply that I wanted more of Rose. Good book.