Ran Away [by] Barbara Hambly
[Surry, Eng.] Severn House [2011]
978-0-7278-8082-6; $28.95
When Ben January fled to Paris, from New Orleans, seeking to escape its racism, he eked out a living as a musician while he studied medicine. He met, fell in love with, and married, Ayasha, a Berber dressmaker. One night, in October of the year 1827, she entreats him to help out Shamira, a sick, pregnant concubine in the household of Hüseyin Pasha, a wealthy Turk. Ben is assisted by the Pasha’s first wife, Jamilla. He discovers that Shamira has been poisoned, and it looks like the culprit is the lesser wife, Utba, who is also pregnant, but with a girl.
Shamira runs away, and January and Ayasha become involved in her plight, which centers on the enmity between Pasha and Sabid al-Muffazar, a former favorite of the Sultan, but now disgraced. When Ayasha is abducted and Shamira’s fate necessitates exchanging her infant son for her freedom, Ben comes to believe Pasha honorable and trustworthy.
Which is why, ten years later, back home in New Orleans, after Ayasha’s death from cholera, Ben disputes the findings that declare that Pasha, now underwriting failing banks in Louisiana, tossed two of his concubines, Noura and Karida, from an upper-story window of his house. Despite even eyewitness reports that Hüseyin Pasha himself did this, Ben knows this behavior is not in the heart of the man that he knows. He visits Pasha, now imprisoned in the Cabildo, under the sharp eye of his friend, Abishag Shaw of the City Guard. Ben also visits the Pasha’s home, where he reacquaints himself with the lady Jamilla and her servant Ra’eesa. He feels like he has gone back in time, which causes him to dream of his first wife. He then wakes up to his second wife, Rose, and feels ashamed.
But time is a-wasting and Ben must get to the bottom of the case soon. It appears some things are not what they seem: the livery stable that backs up to the Pasha’s house is run by a man, who has not been seen for a while. It turns out that he is dead and his children and slaves have buried him under the floor, and his eldest daughter is masquerading as his eldest son, in charge of the place. The mysterious man named Smith, who came to see Hüseyin the night the women were thrown out the window, cannot be found. Two preachers are feuding, but they seem to have secrets beyond that. And someone is trying to discredit January by leaving stolen, but easily-recognizable goods, at his house. The apothecary who lives near Pasha’s is poisoning the lady Jamilla with opium. It’s found out that the two women Pasha supposedly killed were stealing from him. And as background to it all, there are slaves moving through on the Underground Railway, which has a station right below January’s house.
With the assistance of his current wife Rose and his friend, ex-opium addict Hannibal the fiddler, Ben finally steps in to prove Pasha innocent of murder, stealing him right off the ship of the Sultan’s representative, who is a fake, and none other than Hüseyin Pasha’s archenemy, Sabid al-Muffazar. Matters are finally resolved, as they should be in a good mystery, even the feelings Ben has for his dead wife. A really good entry in an historic mystery series full of good entries. Highly recommended. ~ lss-r
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Book borrowed from my public library.
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