Customer Reviews

Sold Down the River (Benjamin January, Book 4)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

What will you do for love? Love of self, love of others, of family, friends and children? If hate is the other side of love, what will you be driven to do? Could you kill? Strike out at whoever is there, or cooly plan a vengeance so horrible solely because someone else will take the weight? Is there such a thing as making amends? Is saying "oops" saying sorry? The book is a shout of rage, the rage of Ben Janvier, of Simon Fourchet, of the Africans, of white women, set in the cool of fall amidst the heat of the cane harvest. Ms Hambly has used heat as a metaphor in all of the books of this series, but here the heat is man made, a hell of tiredness, of flame, of revenge,of love. I enjoyed the book, unable to put it down once the characters were set and the plot moved towards it's end. There were no winners, since everyone was damaged, or had been damaged, in some way before the story begins, or during it. Lives moved on, but the ties remain, and while we finally learn more about Ben's life prior to New Orleans, we also learn a little more about the motivation of his mother, and those like her, who have made a choice many women, if asked, would reject. Jeanette didn't make the choice, and I liked the contrast between her situation with Ben's mother's choice, and why, knowing what it would cost her son, she pressed him to take on the undercover assignment. I agree that the ending was a little contrived, but it is in the end a minor quibble. No one who reads the book will not be in the hold of that steamboat,and feel the heat,the desperation of everyone on board. Ms Hambly has done it again. When is the next Ben Janvier book due?

In 1834 New Orleans, Benjamin January hopes to make some money to support himself and his mother by providing piano lessons. However, his livelihood is interrupted when his former slave master, the cruel Simon Fourchet demands he help him discover who is causing havoc at Mon Triomphe Plantation. Ben remains concerned for what Simon is capable of doing to all the slaves at his two plantations. However, he also has been there, done that, and has Simon's whip marks from a beating when he was seven to prove it. In spite of his personal fears, Ben reluctantly agrees to investigate.

Someone has destroyed much of the sugar cane crop and left voodoo messages on the mill's walls. The masters believe this Turner wannabe has aroused the sentiments that easily could boil into a slave uprising. Worried about the white man's retaliation towards everyone with black skin, Ben goes undercover as a slave on the embattled plantation. As Ben makes quiet inquiries, he remembers with this new experience how humiliating being a slave is and worries that he might never regain his freedom.

SOLD DOWN THE RIVER includes a great mystery with excellent characters. However, what makes this Americana fiction must reading is the depth of the period interwoven into the plot. It feels as if the audience is seeing first hand the perilous life of a slave on a plantation. The excellent who-done-it is cleverly designed and disguised. However, as with its predecessors (see A FREE MAN OF COLOR, FEVER SEASON, and GRAVEYARD DUST), this novel is a welcomed period piece that should bring much acclaim and many awards to Barbara Hambley.

Harriet Klausner

I've always been a fan of Hambly's and the Benjamin January series has been a great favorite for not only the excellent, believable charactors and solid storylines, but the little details. The motivations for the charactor's actions and the way they react come through, especially in this book. A regular reviewer would put it this way: Ben finds himself pursuing justice on a plantation run by a brutal former master, and the difficulties with reconciling with his past as well as the prejudices he faces get in the way of his investigation.

But it is much more - one sees motivations and the way that friendships develop under adverse conditions, and what prices people pay to protect themselves and their loved ones to the best of thier abilities. And how people reconciliate thier actions to themselves.

Yes, there are a few spots that are a little jarring to the consistancy, and a bit of a deux ex machina at the end, but in all, the plot development, the charactors, and the logical actions and reactions blended quite well - as well as the historical and location feel.

When Ms. Hambly is your historical tour guide, you can feel the mists and swampy miasma rise around you as you make your way through the cypress tangles bordering the cane fields along the river...

You won't get sold down the river with this one...

"Sold Down the River" is the fourth book in Barbara Hambly's series about Benjamin Janvier, a free man of color in 19th century New Orleans. Ben was born a slave, but his mother caught the eye of a white man, St. Denis Janvier, who purchased her along with her son and daughter. Educated in languages as well as becoming a surgeon, and classically trained as a pianist, Ben currently makes his living giving piano lessons and playing at various balls in New Orleans.

Things change suddenly when his mother's original owner, a despicable sugar plantation magnate, Simon Fourchet, comes calling and asks Ben to pose as a slave in order to find out who is sabotaging his sugar harvest and trying to kill him.

This is one of Hambly's most intense outing yet, and Ben is put into some considerable peril while trying to unravel the various threads to find out who caused the murders of several slaves as well as damaged some key equipment.

Posing as the slave of his friend, the consumptive violinist Hannibal Sefton, the two travel upriver to Fourchet's plantation, Mon Triomphe. There, Ben must adapt the language of a field hand and muster all of his strength of character to restrain himself as he witnessess the cruelty of overseers and Fourchet himself. Hambly does not use the delicate issue of slavery of window dressing, but addresses it head on, and there are some visceral and graphic scenes depicted here.

Meanwhile, Ben must get in with both the field hands and the house servants as well as gaining knowledge about the white family controlling the plantation. The plot is intricately woven, and there are several surprises awaiting Ben. Luckily, his friend, Abishag Shaw, has given him a way to communicate by tying colorful bandannas to a tree and changing them daily. If he fails to change the color, help will be on the way...he hopes.

There is voodoo, conspiracy, twisted family relationships and affairs within affairs that will keep the reader guessing as well as turning pages.

As usual, Hambly has crafted an detailed novel with vivid descriptions of places and people. I felt like I was there with Janvier. Her research is outstanding and I learned about how sugar cane was harvested at the time. There are many interesting historical nuggets here.

Some bumps...
She referred to the entrance to the sugar mill as a gateway to hell, which when first encountered was awesome, but this description was repeated multiple times, which diminished the impact.
A typical challenge of all books in the series is the sheer number of characters. We have the various slaves and families, as well as the plantation owners, neighbors and various side characters. Throw in the unusual names, complex relationships and it's hard to keep everyone straight.
I also found it interesting that the slaves had so much apparent freedom of movement to go between plantations for various liaisons, etc.

I will continue with the series, and look forward to "Die Upon a Kiss."

I set out to give this 5 stars, because it's one of the most affecting novels I've ever read.

Then I read the other reviews, and thought perhaps I should give it 4 stars because so many people seem to have found the number of characters confusing, and actually the whole plot does seem contrived in retrospect, although I didn't feel that way while I was reading it. It reads more like a pure historical novel than genre fiction, and since it's presented as genre fiction, it may not meet the reader's expectations.

Nevertheless, the fact remains that it's one of the most affecting novels I've ever read. The story isn't about the mystery, it's about the characters and the setting. If it were about the mystery, I wouldn't have read it because genre fiction usually bores me to tears.

The one concession I'll make is that you should not read this without reading "A Free Man of Color" first. If you've already got a handle on the backstory of Ben and his family and friends, it's easier to keep track of all the new characters.

I have waited long for another Hambly book. After Dragonbane where the characters were so real and moving, to find a very complex, exciting, capable and intricate character in Benjamin Janvier. He is sorrowful but not bitter, aware, and intelligent, a musician an dphysician ( I wish I could be)and yet fighting the problems and complexities of New Orleans and the south in 1831. We get a real but not overly gruesome feel of slavery. You see the filth and cruelty but it is not basked in like some torture-lover. I have read one other Janvier novel and will go back and get the rest. Thank you for making real understandable and identifiable people.

Benjamin January has solved his share of mysteries. It has always been difficult for him to turn away anyone in need. As a Black man in 1830s New Orleans January understands all too well the concept of injustice. However, the man who has recently come to him for help is the last person in the entire world he wants to help. The man who needs January's assistance this time is none other than his heartless former owner, Simon Fourchet. Although it has been decades since he was in bondage, January can neither forget nor forgive the man who used, abused and treated him and his family like animals. Fourchet is growing older and even more bitter. The last thing he wants to do is ask for help from his former property. Yet, January is the only person he can trust to go undercover and find the culprit who is hell bent on destroying him.

Reluctant to help Fourchet, January must reconsider for the sake of all those still in bondage on Fourchet's plantation. Fourchet and others believe that the arson, sabotage and murders are being done by the hands of a slave. January knows that if he doesn't help find the killer every slave will suffer. And plantation justice is the most brutal of all. In order to save innocents, January will have to leave his comfortable life and return to the slave quarters on the plantation Mon Triumphe, and discover the deadly secrets that reside there as well as in the "Big House".

SOLD DOWN THE RIVER by Barbara Hambly is another superb outing for the heroic Benjamin January. Hambly brings to life the sights, smells, and indignities of the Louisiana plantations. She paints a glorious picture of a cast of characters who all have secrets and hidden agendas. Hambly does not write her characters in just black and white. All of the characters are three dimensional. Although the issue of slavery is still a sore spot for this country, Hambly tackles it with intelligence, reality and sensitivity. SOLD DOWN THE RIVER will have the reader rooting for Benjamin January to find the culprit and put his painful past to rest once and for all.

Reviewed by L. Raven James
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

It is very difficult to read this book of Ms. Hambly's because her portrayal of slavery and the slave's lot in 19th century America is so real. The book is filled with horror from cover to cover, but there is warmth, fellowship and love there too. When people are together in misery very lasting and strong bonds and friendships are forged, and Benjamin January rediscovers this when he goes undercover on a cane plantation to try to determine who is behind all the accidents and deaths occuring on his old master's plantation. January certainly has no love for Simon Fourtier, but he can't help going to help because if tragedy occurs to the white folks on a plantation, it can't help but be felt by the slaves, and they usually end up suffering the more for it. January goes to help, and goes to work as a field hand with the threat of being plunged back into the slave's life very real to him. He makes some lasting friendships, but at the same time uncovers an evil so grotesque that he can hardly take it in. Luckily for Ben, his old friend Hannibal and Abishag Shaw come to his rescue before he is actually "sold down the river". Ms. Hambly's research is very extensive, and she captures this era better than anyone I've read.

Benjamin January was a slave who had been treated brutally by his former master Simon Fourchet. Fortunately for him he had been sold to another master who sent him to Paris where he was educated as both a surgeon and musician, and given his freedom. Because people had been hesitant to patronize a man of color, he had given up his surgery practice. Now, he lives off his music, playing at balls and teaching. He has returned home to New Orleans, his place of birth, a free man of color. To January's amazement Simon Fourchet has come to him for a favor. It seems the Fourchet's butler was poisoned by whisky meant for the master. Someone is trying to kill Fourchet, and he wants January to pose as a slave and act as a spy to uncover the guilty parties. January hates Fourchet and doesn't want any part of finding out who's trying to kill the man, but Benjamin's relative points out that if he doesn't do it, all the slaves on Fourchet's plantation will suffer and probably be sold down the river. Very reluctantly, January agrees, and thus begins a whirlwind dive into Hell. Sold Down the River is rich in description as well as history. In 1834 New Orleans January encounters everything from back breaking slave labor to voodoo rites. There are so many possible candidates for killing Fourchet, poor Ben is constantly in a quandary. A former slave as the protagonist and educated snoop? Hambly pulls it off with panache.

From the very first page of Sold Down the River, I had the distinct impression that Hambly had written the first three January books as set-up for this, the fourth. The first three books make mention of January's having been a slave, but only as backstory and never in detail. Those stories flirt with the hazards of being a free black man; several times January's freedom is threatened or he is casually abused by the whites around him, but since Ben is the star of the franchise it's hard to believe he will really be in lasting danger.

*Sold Down the River* succeeds because it made me feel the danger. From the very first sentence the threat is personal and profound: "When someone ties you naked to a tree and beats you unconscious with a broom handle, you don't soon forget it, or him."

Thus does January come face-to-face with the monster of his childhood, the plantation owner who used, abused, and sold himself, his mother, and sister more than 30 years previous. That first chapter is a simmering pressure-cooker of repressed rage, expectations, and surprises: Monsieur Fourchet has come to ask, incredibly, for January's help.

And it only gets deeper from there. January's refusal to take the job is perfectly reasonable, but his reasons for accepting it--despite the very real danger and discomfort to himself--are equally plausible. And it's not only the danger of his life or freedom--his sense of self-worth, of right and wrong, his joy in music and his ability to make a living as a musician--all are threatened by the grinding and dehumanizing effects of life on a sugar plantation.

And it is grinding. The physical abuse is bad enough, but what really drives the point home is the psychological torture. Hambly never flinches from the realities of the past, but she doesn't wallow in them, either. The horrors she shows us are always in service of the story, never for mere exploitation or hand-wringing. Although some of the characters seem stock--the evil overseer, the beautiful slave girl, the wise old storyteller--they all weave seamlessly into the tapestry of the plot. Every character has a function that trandscends their familiar origins.

But it is the personal risk, the attention to one man as a cipher for a whole people (and really, Ben's rarified status as an educated black man makes him the most reliable of witnesses), that really makes the story shine. January's willingness to step up and do the right thing elevated him to genuine hero status to this reader, where before I had only seen him as an avatar, useful for touring the 1830's. Hambly's research, as always, is impressive, but here, January's emotional involvement, combined with his investigative detatchment, make the history lesson go down effortlessly. For the first time in this series, I felt I was seeing his world through his eyes, rather than hovering over his shoulder like a TV camera.

This is far and away the best book of the series (yes, including those that come after). It has the briskest pace, the strongest sense of motivation for January to be involved in the mystery, the greatest sense of risk (the lives of 100 slaves, many of whom we get to befriend, are in danger). The main backbone of the plot--who is sabotaging M. Fourchet's harvest?--is more complex than it initially appears, but the answers are stunningly simple and effective (let's face it, when you're dealing with the rawest aspects of human behavior, complicated motivations are overkill). The climax approaches a swashbuckling tone that some may find contradictory to what went before, but frankly that's what I like about it: we get a hint of Mark Twain or Andre Dumas that is cathartic after all the simmering rage. A daring rescue, a banding-together under adversity, the cavalry arriving at the last minute.... yeah, it was pretty satisfying. And the denoument is rewarding on every level: mystery solved, day saved, hero's heart salved.

I can't say for sure whether this book would have the same emotional impact on someone who hadn't slogged through the first three and gotten to know the characters a bit. Nevertheless it should hold together for first-time readers. Highly recommended--just don't be disappointed when the other installments aren't quite this calibre.