Dead Water (Benjamin January # 9), by Barbara Hambly

[rachelmanija]

The owner of the bank that Ben and Rose put all their money into approaches them in secret to inform them that a bank employee has made off with so much of its money that the bank will go under if it's not retrieved and/or anyone finds out. He knows where the employee is, but not where the money is. And so Ben and Rose, posing as slaves owned by Hannibal, get on a riverboat headed into slave territory to find the money.

This becomes a classic mystery, with plenty of clues, murders, suspects, and misdirections. It's got tons of great character interactions, a very clever and solid plot, good supporting characters, and is absolute gold for Hannibal fans. In fact this is the book that tipped me into becoming much more of one than I already was, and I already liked him a lot.

It also has one of my favorite trademarks of the series, which is the sudden plunge from a comparatively low-key pace into wildly tropey action in which an incredible number of wacky things happen in extremely fast succession. They're all meticulously set up and logical things, which makes it even more amazing and hilarious.

Here are my very spoilery emails to Layla once I hit that part, with timestamps so you can get a sense of how fast everything starts happening.:

11:17 PM: I just got to where Hannibal got forced to agree to duel, and Rose asks if there's anyone they should notify and he says everyone who cares about me is here. AWWWWWWW.

11:29 PM: And then Ben gets angry that someone set up frail sensitive Hannibal to think he killed someone AND THEN HANNIBAL GOT POISONED.

11:34 PM: And suddenly there are pirates!!!

11:36 PM: A bearded scoundrel in a faded shirt swung himself up over the promenade rail with a knife in his teeth.

LOLOLOLOL.

11:44 PM: Also the boat just sank.

[End emails]

I love the setup at the end, that Ben and Rose are going to get involved in the Underground Railroad. The next book is Dead and Buried - is that what that one is about?



Grimness quotient: Low. Taking the time period into account, it's surprisingly upbeat.

Only $4.49 on Kindle: Dead Water (A Benjamin January Mystery Book 8)

Comments

[sovay]

It's got tons of great character interactions, a very clever and solid plot, good supporting characters, and is absolute gold for Hannibal fans.

It is also the book that convinced me that whether or not it ever becomes textual, Hambly really does OT3 Rose, Ben, and Hannibal, because they were basically doing that scene from Shane over the prospect of Hannibal's duel.

The next book is Dead and Buried - is that what that one is about?

I think that has to wait a book or so. After Dead Water, there was a six-year gap and a change of publishers. At the risk of TMI, Dead and Buried is one of the weirdest experiences I have ever had with a book because I correctly called its particular plunge into the wilds of melodrama from the end of Chapter Two, when it finally came off the wall it was beautifully done, it was narratively and character-satisfying on just about every level, and the emotional effect still went off like a bomb in my head later that night because it used too many of my own metaphors. I ended up making that book a mixtape to try to process it. I'm not sure it's a meaningful mixtape to anyone but me, but here we are.

[oracne]

May I ask about what type of stuff made up the playlist, or would that be spoilery for Rachel?

[sovay]

May I ask about what type of stuff made up the playlist, or would that be spoilery for Rachel?

I actually posted it at the time, I just didn't say what it was for. All links are currently dead, but I could re-up them if desired. As warned, may not work for anyone else.

[skygiants]

Yeah, this one is very definitely the OT3 book!

[oracne]

DEAD AND BURIED has important Hannibal stuff in it. But I don't remember any Underground Railroad.

[kore]

Am I wrong or does the Railroad not really come back until Drinking Gourd? As a central plot element, I mean.

[kore]

Yeah, Dead and Buried has no Railroad in it at all. It's very Hannibal-centric, and while beautifully written, and having lots of enjoyable batshit melodrama, it felt more....conventional? to me, sort of. Which is the wrong word, but it just wasn't as appealing to me. The Railroad isn't really central until Drinking Gourd (#14), which I enjoyed very much. (Could be wrong there, my memory is patchy today)