When a mystery series is up to its nineteenth volume, you know it has something special going for it. In the case of Barbara Hambly's Benjamin January series, that something is a historically informed exploration of life in the U.S. shortly before the Civil War as lived by "colored" characters and set in New Orleans. I use the term colored here, rather than Black, because of the significant role color played at that time and in these books. If one had a single grandparent or great-grandparent of color one was colored, but the number of such grandparents (with fewer being seen as better) could play a significant role in social status—think of terms like quadroon and octaroon.

Benjamin January is a free man of color, son of a placée: a free colored woman who had established a contractual relationship with a white man to serve as his mistress in exchange for significant financial support (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pla%C3%...). He trained as a surgeon in France, but his opportunities to use his skills are limited in pre-Civil War New Orleans, so he makes his living primarily as a musician playing at events held by wealthy whites and by offering piano lessons. He has two sisters: one also a placée, the other a respected voodoo practitioner and healer. His wife, who is highly educated, runs a boarding school for colored girls who wish to receive the kind of demanding education generally reserved for boys at that time.

January's free status makes him markedly privileged in a society so dependent on slavery, but that privilege is vulnerable: at any time he could be kidnapped and "sold down the river" as a slave. He spends significant amounts of time both in the company of slaves and in the company of white men. In the latter case, he has to carefully monitor his every word and gesture because perceived "uppityness" on his part could quickly lead to violence or death. There are two white men with whom he has more equitable relationships—one a sheriff's deputy, the other a fiddle player—but even with them, in order to remain safe January's public behavior has to appear servile.

That's all contextual information. This particular volume of the series takes place during the Presidential contest between Martin Van Buren and William H. Harrison (Old Tippecanoe). Henry Clay, considered a reformer in his time because he supported an early version of the "back to Africa" movement and who is credited with delaying the start of the Civil War several times, is campaigning for Harrison. The Harrison campaign was notable for its use of new campaign tactics: theme songs, give aways (hard cider, for example), over-large symbolic constructions (a giant rawhide ball carrying the signatures of 20,000+ supporters) exhibited along the campaign trail, and dirty tricks.

After one of these campaign events, a young white woman is found murdered. The suspects include several men who have been enamored of her, including Henry Clay's son James—or their older male relatives who have more economically beneficial marriage arrangements planned for these young men. As a result, the person actually arrested for the crime is a former placée, mother of a current placée contracted to one of the victim's suitors and recently abandoned by him.

The mystery around the woman's killing is well constructed with enough disparate threads to keep readers guessing. But every bit as engaging as that mystery is Hambly's depiction of politics and race relations at the time, particularly her portrayal of Henry Clay. Clay is generally seen as a principled man with progressive racial views for his time. The historical reality is much more complex. As the mystery is unravelled, so is the character of Clay, showing the ways in which he was every bit a (white) man of his time.

This is an historical mystery that provides a satisfying read by virtue of its mystery, but its exploration of politics and race in U.S. history makes much more than that, inviting readers to see events from a perspective that isn't part of the mainstream narrative. Hambly has been doing that throughout this series, but Death and Hard Cider is her most effective volume yet in terms of its hard-eyed view of the times in which the novel occurs.

I received a free electronic review copy of this volume from Severn House via NetGalley; the opinions are my own. ( )