Sold Down the River

By: Barbara Hambly

Narrated by: Ron Butler

Penetrating the murkiest corners of glittering New Orleans society, Benjamin January brought murderers to justice in A Free Man of Color, Fever Season, and Graveyard Dust. Now, in Barbara Hambly’s haunting new novel, he risks his life in a violent plantation world darker than anything in the city....

When slave owner Simon Fourchet asks Benjamin January to investigate sabotage, arson, and murder on his plantation, January is reluctant to do any favors for the savage man who owned him until he was seven. But he knows too well that plantation justice means that if the true culprit is not found, every slave on Mon Triomphe will suffer.

Abandoning his Parisian French for the African patois of a field hand, cutting cane until his bones ache and his musician’s hands bleed, Benjamin must use all his intelligence and cunning to find the killer - or find himself sold down the river.

©2001 Barbara Hambly (P)2021 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

The last chapter!

I'm not a cryer but the last chapter of this book gets me, every time!

Another great story!

My daughter and I are listening to these books together as we shelter in place for COVID-19. Thank you Ron Butler. You are doing an excellent job of narrating. We appreciate Barbara for writing these stories with Benjamin January as well as all the other wonderful characters that tell of people strong enough to survive through a harsh time in American history.

Exceptional series

I really don’t like reading about anything to do with the subject of slavery…too horrifically present…still. But, Ms. Hambly’s books bring alive African myth, literature and the continuing durability of black people surviving under incredible odds. Ben, her main character is equal to Hercule Poirot, and hints at abilities gained and fostered, if, the playing field were not strewn with obstacles.