Murder in the Trembling Lands

Name: Murder in the Trembling Lands
Rating: 4.49 (229 reviews)

by Barbara Hambly

Book 21 in the Benjamin January Mysteries series.

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Audio available 4.5

During Carnival in February 1841, Benjamin January is summoned from a masked ball to attend a duel provoked by an accusation that a newcomer is a Black man passing as white. The stranger dies, but January’s examination shows that the fatal shot came from behind and could not have been fired by the young planter facing him.

January initially refuses Abishag Shaw’s request to investigate because exposing the murder may endanger everyone involved. As threats and further evidence make silence impossible, he must trace the dead man’s identity through the racial classifications and family secrets on which wealth, freedom and social position depend.