The new Ben January book is out already! I thought it wasn't supposed to be out 'til mid-June. Why did I not pre-order?! *places Amazon order post-haste* I WANT THIS BOOK SO BAAAAAAD. Road trip of awesome! Shaw backstory! I WAAAAAAAAANT.
I need to do a proper promo post for these books so that I have more people to talk to about them. *g*
The author is Barbara Hambly, and they're historical murder mysteries - somewhat heavier on the "historical" than the murder mystery part. They're set in New Orleans in the 1830s.
For me, the books are pretty much a perfect balance of action-type stuff and character stuff - they're very much about the characters, the world in which they live, and the way their lives change over time, but there's also quite a bit of swashbuckling action, daring rescues and things of that nature. There's a book where they're hunting lost pirate treasure on the Mississippi delta! And another where the (free black) protagonist goes undercover on a slave plantation to catch a killer, and another where they're running around in Mexico doing cowboy-type stuff. And the upcoming book, according to the promo copy anyway, involves several of the main characters on what basically amounts to a road trip across a large swathe of the 19th-century U.S. territories. (Okay, there's a murder-related reason for it, but still. BUDDIES ON A ROAD TRIP.) The books occasionally teeter on the verge of "too much history, not enough everything else" (which I am actually okay with, being a history nerd) but then someone generally gets shot or poisoned or kidnapped, and everyone is off on an adventure again. *g*
Ooooooh! I love Barbara Hambly! Ive read her fantasy and her vampire series (Those Who Hunt the Night, etc), but had no idea she had written a historical mystery series!
Ive been so wrapped up in the vast sea of awesome fanfiction lately, that Ive not even been keeping up with what's being published by my favorite authors. Time to hit the bookstore...
"Those Who Hunt the Night" was actually how I discovered Hambly (twenty years ago ... ack) but I realized later that I actually like her historical novels better than her fantasy. Which is not to say there's anything wrong with her fantasy; she's one of the more consistently readable authors out there. :) I want to reread the vampire books at some point, and see how they hold up; I know there are more in the series than the ones I've read.
Here's a spoiler-free list of the Ben January books in order. I was about to say "The library has them all" and then remembered that you're not in Fairbanks, ahahaha, oops. But if our library has them, then the Anchorage library is likely to have them as well.
sholio
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For me, the books are pretty much a perfect balance of action-type stuff and character stuff - they're very much about the characters, the world in which they live, and the way their lives change over time, but there's also quite a bit of swashbuckling action, daring rescues and things of that nature. There's a book where they're hunting lost pirate treasure on the Mississippi delta! And another where the (free black) protagonist goes undercover on a slave plantation to catch a killer, and another where they're running around in Mexico doing cowboy-type stuff. And the upcoming book, according to the promo copy anyway, involves several of the main characters on what basically amounts to a road trip across a large swathe of the 19th-century U.S. territories. (Okay, there's a murder-related reason for it, but still. BUDDIES ON A ROAD TRIP.) The books occasionally teeter on the verge of "too much history, not enough everything else" (which I am actually okay with, being a history nerd) but then someone generally gets shot or poisoned or kidnapped, and everyone is off on an adventure again. *g*
Ive been so wrapped up in the vast sea of awesome fanfiction lately, that Ive not even been keeping up with what's being published by my favorite authors. Time to hit the bookstore...
Here's a spoiler-free list of the Ben January books in order. I was about to say "The library has them all" and then remembered that you're not in Fairbanks, ahahaha, oops. But if our library has them, then the Anchorage library is likely to have them as well.