SOLD DOWN THE RIVER by Barbara Hambly

Industrial sabotage and murder have been committed at Mon Triomphe, a sugar plantation in antebellum Louisiana. The plantation owner enlists the aid of his former mixed blood mistress in New Orleans to convince her son Benjamin January to go undercover to find the killer. Why would Ben, a free black man educated as a physician, put himself at risk? To save dozens of innocent enslaved people at Mon Triomphe from punishment or even death if the killings continue. Ben enters the plantation and endures an exhausting existence of cutting cane while investigating the crimes, all the while trying to avoid being “sold down the river.” Historical insights address the commercial necessity of the grievous system of forced labor at Mon Triomphe and other antebellum plantations. The writing confidently approaches a tragic and infuriating chapter of US history by focusing on the oppressed. A vast array of characters are portrayed and familial relationships are developed and sometimes gut-wrenchingly split apart by the abhorrent system. The terrifying power wielded by a plantation owner and overseer is movingly portrayed as is the drive of enslaved people to maintain dignity and hope. Ben is a memorable protagonist: courageous, resourceful, strong and dynamic. Settings are drawn with a keen eye to historical detail and sometimes quite colorfully, like when “long windows glowed through the mists in sulfurous lozenges of muzzy light.” This title is one of a series of Benjamin January murder mysteries set in the antebellum South, mostly in and around New Orleans. Highly recommended for readers interested in the period.