In this book, the 14th Benjamin January mystery, Hambly looks at themes of moral ambiguity in a story dealing with the Underground Railroad. Not everyone involved with the rescue of slaves here is purely a saint and sometimes the price of freedom is high. Two characters introduced in Dead Water (the 8th in the series) reappear and once again Hannibal poses as Benjamin’s owner in a situation (Mississippi) where the fact of a black man’s freedom doesn’t even enter into white people’s minds because his monetary value is so high. The two of them have been hired on by a circus as musicians to accompany a blackface minstrel show—a job that doesn’t even pay well, but is somewhat better than nothing!—when they have to respond to an urgent appeal for help from the Underground Railroad operation in Vicksburg. When they’re on the spot, things get worse and more complicated. Because this is Barbara Hambly.

Without spoilers I can’t say much more, but I do miss the maps which appeared in the early books of the series before a new publisher took over. This book would have benefited from a map to follow the action. It’s all located in the immediate vicinity of Vicksburg, but people are dashing back and forth, hiding in the woods, being pursued, being murdered, and it’s very complex. ( )

I usually love Benjamin January and the books in this series are usually quite wonderful. There was a long wait for this newest one, and I was excited when I finally got to read it. I had a lot of trouble getting through it. The story is all about the Underground Railroad and the dangers involved with being involved with it, especially down in the deep south. Ben and his friend Hannibal are called down to Vicksburg to help one wounded free coloured conductor of the Underground Railroad. The utmost care must be taken, because no hint of his involvement must get out. So at great risk to themselves, Ben and Hannibal set out, and end up in a hot bed of runaway slaves and the the slave catchers who are out to get them at any cost. The drinking gourd of this story is the Big Dipper which leads the runaways north as they try to escape the oppression of slavery in the south. It all sounded like it would be an exciting read, but I found there was a lot of skipping around and such a large cast of characters that it was difficult to keep track of. the plot and how the characters fit into it. I also found the Benjamin January asides which he held in his head as he experienced the oppression first hand, were distracting to the main story. But i couldn't fault Ms. Hambly's descriptions of the dedication of the people who helped to make the Underground Railroad a success during these troubling times. The plot was too disjointed for me to maintain a vested interest in any of the characters, including Benjamin January, who I usually absolutely love. Disappointed, but I will read the next in the series. Hopefully it will be more cohesive than this one was. ( )

Once again, a one-sitting read from Barbara Hambly.

Ben is called to Vicksburg, where the Underground Railroad is in need of a surgeon. So off Ben goes, accompanied by Hannibal - necessary protection for a black man in that time and place.

Like many of the books in this series, particularly the later ones, the morality/ethics of the situations in which the characters find themselves are almost more important than the murder-mystery. This is one of the reasons why I think the series as a whole is so good.

Hambly does not write characters who are wholly good or wholly bad (except maybe Ben!), but instead shows the more realistic situation - even "good" people do bad things, and "bad" people do good things. That being the case, how many bad things can a "good" person do before he becomes a "bad" person? And what about the people who know what that person is doing, but don't stop him or her? Does standing by make you complicit?

Then, of course, there is today's regrettable tendency to put people in a simple hierarchy, from top to bottom, starting from the most powerful and going down to the least. Hambly demonstrates that power is multifaceted - a person who is in a fortunate, powerful position in some ways, may not be in others. Furthermore, a person's position on the greasy pole may be dictated just as much by who they know - and how much they are valued by those people - as who they are.

Ethics and morality are rather complicated concepts in the real world, where there are no perfect people, or perfect choices. And Ben, too, has to confront the fact that his and Rose's own relatively happy and secure situation in New Orleans means that he often just isn't faced with the difficult choices that others have to make on a daily basis. ( )

I love this mystery series featuring Benjamin January, a "free man of color" in antebellum New Orleans. This latest installment finds Ben and his erudite friend, Hannibal, working as musicians in a minstrel show on a Mississippi riverboat after summer fevers have closed down all his usual occupations in New Orleans.

In Vicksburg Ben is called upon to help a wounded "conductor" om the Underground Railroad. This is dangerous work, for in cotton country, Ben's papers that she he's a free man are just as likely to be torn up as to be honored. Then when the head organizer of this stretch of the freedom trail is found murdered, Ben must navigate the labyrinth of spoken and unspoken alliances and loyalties to find the real murderer.

As always, author Barbara Hambly presents her story with well researched historical accuracy and with deep respect for her characters, both black and white. ( )