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Barbara Hambly

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Barbara Hambly is an American author of historical fiction, mysteries, fantasy and science fiction. She earned a master’s degree in medieval history before publishing her first novel, The Time of the Dark, in 1982. Although she is widely known for fantasy series such as Darwath and the Windrose Chronicles, Hambly has also written extensively about nineteenth-century America, combining murder investigations and personal drama with detailed depictions of slavery, race, gender and political power.

Her principal historical work is the Benjamin January series, beginning with A Free Man of Color. Set mainly in 1830s New Orleans, it follows a free Black musician and French-trained surgeon who investigates crimes within a society divided by slavery, ethnicity and class. The series includes Fever Season, Graveyard Dust, Sold Down the River and Die upon a Kiss. Hambly’s other historical novels include The Emancipator’s Wife, about Mary Todd Lincoln, and Patriot Hearts, which brings together Martha Washington, Abigail Adams, Dolley Madison and Sally Hemings. Her James Asher vampire mysteries also use carefully researched historical settings, beginning in Edwardian England and later extending into the First World War.

Periods and events

Abolitionism & American Slaveryc. 1830–1865 CE American Civil War1861–1865 CE American Revolutionary Era1763–1783 CE Antebellum Mississippi Valley1830–1861 British Home Front during World War I1914–1918 CE Edwardian Society1901–1914 CE July Crisis1914 July Monarchy1830–1848 CE Late Ottoman Empire1876–1922 Republic of Texas1836–1846 CE Republican China1912–1949 CE Russian Empire & Revolution1721–1991 CE Silent-Era Hollywood1920–1929 CE Slavery in the Antebellum Mississippi Valley1830–1861 Texas–Comanche Conflict1821–1875 CE Underground Railroadc. 1800–1865 CE Western Front1914–1918 CE World War I1914–1918 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Barbara Hambly (3 series)

Silver Screen Historical Mysteries in Order

by Barbara Hambly 4 books 4.3(1,045)

British classicist Emma Blackstone arrives in Hollywood in 1924 as companion to her glamorous sister-in-law, silent-film star Camille de la Rose, known professionally as Kitty Flint. Emma soon becomes a scenario editor for Foremost Studios, correcting historical errors while managing Kitty’s dogs, admirers and dangerous impulsiveness. The series…

Benjamin January Mysteries in Order

by Barbara Hambly 21 books 4.2(19,232)

Benjamin January is a free man of colour, a trained surgeon and a professional musician living in New Orleans during the decades before the American Civil War. His investigations move through Creole drawing rooms, music halls, hospitals, plantations, riverboats and slave quarters, where formal law is shaped by…

James Asher Vampire Novels in Order

by Barbara Hambly 8 books 4.1(12,001)

Former British spy and Oxford philologist James Asher is forced into an uneasy alliance with the ancient Spanish vampire Don Simon Ysidro. With James’s wife Lydia, a physician and scientific investigator, they pursue murders, disappearances and political schemes that connect the hidden societies of the undead with European…

Historical fiction

Standalone historical fiction by Barbara Hambly (3 books)

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