Hambly may have faltered a little in her
last novel Wet Grave, but she
redeems herself in her latest novel in the Benjamin January series in which she
uses Aztec mythology to construct a locked room murder mystery set in 19th
century Mexico City. The events in Days
of the Day, the seventh novel in the series, are played out against the
background of Santa Anna preparing an army to fight the Texans.
The buried treasure they recovered during
their last adventure allowed amateur detective Benjamin January and his new
wife Rose to become moderately wealthy. Thus, when they receive a letter
requesting help from their friend Hannibal Sefton, they can afford to travel to
Mexico City to rescue him. He is a consumptive Irishman who self-medicates with
whiskey laudanum, plays the violin with Ben at the balls in New Orleans, and is
fond of quoting Shakespeare and other European poets. When the opera he and
Benjamin were playing for in Wet Grave
ended, he left New Orleans with the ballerina Consuela Montero, one of the
daughters of the powerful, Don Prospero de Castellon, for Mexico City.
Hannibal, who was the last person seen with
the mad Don Prosperos’s only living son Fernando and appeared to be handing him
a drink, is accused of murdering him. The Mad Don is holding Hannibal a virtual
prisoner until he can visit his son’s grave during the “Days of the Dead”
festival and learn from Fernando who killed him. Hannibal also faces a threat
from Captain Francisco Ylario of the civil guards who wants to capture and hang
him without any prove other than everyone believes Hannibal is the murderer.
When Benjamin is accused of killing the Mad
Don’s cook, he knows he is getting close to exposing the murderer. But to
continue his investigation, he has to remain alive. An enraged Don Prosperos
comes after him with a shotgun. Benjamin escapes from the Don’s vaqueros and
hides in the Pyramid of the Dead. Rose joins him later, and they, or rather
Benjamin, concocts a plan based on his knowledge of voodoo that he hopes will
influence Don Prosperos’s decision on Hannibal when the Don comes to the
Pyramid on the Day of the Dead festival to talk with his dead son.
As always, Hambly’s research is thorough
and comprehensive. Combining the mystery genre, the thriller genre, and the
historical genre is her major strength. In Days
of the Day, the three genres come together in a story that holds the
interest right up to the end.
For me, though not for Benjamin and Rose
considering the dangers they face in Mexico, getting out of the heat and filth
of New Orleans was a relief, especially since it afforded me the opportunity to
learn about a different culture.
