Most Popular Books by Barbara Hambly

A lush and haunting novel of a city steeped in decadent pleasures . . . and of a man, proud and defiant, caught in a web of murder and betrayal. It is 1833. In the midst of Mardi Gras, Benjamin January, a Creole physician and music teacher, is playing piano at the Salle d''Orleans when the evenings festivities are interrupted—by murder. Ravishing Angelique Crozat, a notorious octoroon who travels in the city''s finest company, has been strangled to death. With the authorities reluctant to become involved, Ben begins his own inquiry, which will take him through the seamy haunts of riverboatmen and into the huts of voodoo-worshipping slaves. But soon the eyes of suspicion turn toward Ben—for, black as the slave who fathered him, this free man of color is still the perfect scapegoat. . . . Praise for A Free Man of Color “A smashing debut. Rich and exciting with both substance and spice.”—Star Tribune, Minneapolis “A sparkling gem.”—King Features Syndicate “An astonishing tour de force.”—Margaret Maron “Superb.”—Drood Review of Mystery “A darned good murder mystery.”—USA Today

DIVDIVAn idealistic young prince convinces an aging warrior and a struggling witch to help him kill the dragon that is terrorizing his kingdom/divDIV /divDIVAs a vicious dragon stalks the Southlands, Crown Prince Gareth ventures to the forbidding North in search of the only man who can kill it. He is Lord Aversin, the Dragonsbane, whose dragon-slaying days have won him renown across the land. But when Gareth finds Lord Aversin, he discovers the mighty hero is squat and bespectacled, the ruler of a mud-village who admits that he killed the dragon not with a lance, but with ignoble poison. Still, he’ll have to do./divDIV /divDIVGareth and Aversin set off in company with Jenny Waynest, a witch with great ambitions but disappointingly puny powers—a ragtag crew destined to become legendary, or die in the attempt./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./div /div

DIVDIVAfter a year of magical combat, the world is in ruins, and the few surviving wizards, including two stranded Californians, must take to the offensive/divDIV /divDIVSince the Dark Ones returned, the world has been laid to waste. The land’s wizards have been slaughtered, its cities destroyed, and its people scattered in terror, and few have witnessed more of the destruction than Rudy and Gil—two ordinary Californians who found their way across the Void, and took up arms in defense of a strange and magical world. She learned the ways of war, while he found within himself the powers of a great wizard. Both of them will need all their strength to survive this final challenge./divDIV /divDIVIngold, the master wizard, has devised a spell to hide the user from the deathly stare of the Dark, and he intends to use it to strike at their very heart. Finally, Rudy, Gil, and the rest of mankind’s survivors will take the offensive, bringing an end to this terrible war, for better or for worse./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./div /div

DIVDIVA murderous force threatens a far-off magical world, and an ordinary Californian is drawn into the battle to save mankind/divDIV /divDIVAs a student of medieval history, Gil Patterson is a woman familiar with dark stories. She knows well the Crusades, the Black Death, and the other horrors of the Middle Ages, but it is another kind of atrocity that has begun to haunt her dreams. She sees forces of evil assaulting a beleaguered kingdom, whose kind people are on the brink of annihilation, and awakes each morning in a cold sweat./divDIV /divDIVGil dismisses the dreams until a wizard appears in her apartment. He has crossed into her dimension, passing through the fraying fabric of the universe, to ask her help. For mankind to survive he must protect an infant prince, whom he plans to hide in Gil''s world. The student of history is about to get much closer to evil than she ever imagined./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./div /div

DIVDIVAn aging wizard and his apprentice venture into a world where magic has died, hoping to save it before the same fate befalls their own/divDIV /divDIVJaldis does not believe it at first. When the old wizard—blind, tongueless, able to see and speak through magic alone—peers into the Void between dimensions, he sees something terrible: a world where magic is dead, and whose inhabitants scream for someone to rescue them. Such a place must be studied, for if it is possible to kill magic, then that terrible fate could threaten his own world, too./divDIV /divDIVWith the help of his apprentice, Rhion, the wizard prepares for the treacherous crossing. To make the journey, they must withstand the hatred that their own world has for magic—a powerful force that the ignorant would wipe out if they could./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./div /div

From a New York Times–Bestselling author: An apprentice wizard must fight to escape a world he doesn’t understand: 1940 Germany. When the wizard Jaldis heard the cry from beyond the Void, telling of a world where magic was dead and begging for his aid, he and his apprentice, Rhion, went to help. Crossing the Void takes all of their strength, and when Rhion awakes on the other side, he learns that the task is beyond them. Jaldis is dead, and the portal home gone with him. Now he is trapped in a place called Earth, in a nation beset from all sides by its enemies. The men who called him here need a wizard to save them, and though Rhion is but a novice, he will have to do. He may even find a way home, but only if he can find a way to serve this mysterious empire that they call the Third Reich. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

DIVDIVCalifornia natives Gil and Rudy must use their newfound magical powers to defend their adopted homeland when the powers of the Dark rise up—again/divDIV /divDIVOnce upon a time, Gil and Rudy lived simple lives. Until they met Ingold, she was an ordinary PhD candidate and he was a drifter, whiling away his life riding motorcycles under the California sun. But wizards have a way of complicating things. Ingold brought them across the Void, where an evil known as the Dark threatened to devour civilization whole. Civilization’s hopes rested on an infant prince, and to protect him Gil and Rudy had to draw on newfound powers—she as a warrior, and he as a wizard. With Ingold’s help they escaped the Dark, and led a hardy band of survivors to a far-away keep, where humanity could be safe for a time./divDIV /divDIVBut now that time is past, and there is nowhere to hide from the Dark./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./div /div

The Yellow City is in crisis. The wells are running dry, and the Sun Mages have been unable to call the rains. Frustrated Mages across the land can no longer work the magic that once ran their empire. Now the magic lies solely in the hands of a few women--the first ever to have developed magical powers.

Free man of color Benjamin January travels to Washington, DC, to track down a missing mathematician in this “excellent” pre–Civil War mystery (Publishers Weekly, starred review). New Orleans, 1838. Living in antebellum New Orleans as a free man of color, Benjamin January has always taken whatever work he could find. But when he suddenly loses his job playing piano at extravagant parties, he finds himself taking on an entirely new—and exceedingly dangerous—enterprise. Sugar planter Henri Viellard has hired Benjamin to travel with him to Washington, DC. Henri’s friend, an elderly English mathematician named Selwyn Singletary, was last seen in Washington before he went missing. With Benjamin’s help, Henri intends to track him down. Plunged into a murky world of spies, slave snatchers, and dirty politicians, Benjamin uncovers a coded secret that he attempts to decipher with the help of a young Edgar Allan Poe. But a powerful ring of conspirators doesn’t want the secret known. And they’re ready to kill anyone who gets in their way.

The new ''James Asher'' vampire novel from the best-selling author It''s 1911. War is coming, and according to one of the vampires of St. Petersburg, the Kaiser is trying to recruit vampires. James Asher, Oxford don and formerly on His Majesty''s Secret Service, is forced to team up again with his vampire partner Don Simon Ysidro for a journey to the subarctic Russian capital. Are they on the trail of a rogue vampire with a plan to achieve the power to walk in daylight? Asher wonders. Or is Ysidro''s real agenda to seek the woman he once loved?

The crew of the Nautilus,a battered Starship of mysterious origin, is beamed aboard the Starship Enterprise™.The group claims they are freedom fighters from the future working to save the Federation from the Consilium -- a group of corrupt power-seekers. But when the Nautiluscrew members suddenly seize control of the U.S.S. Enterprise™,and a Starship from the future arrives to arrest the renegades, Kirk must separate his true allies from those who wish to destroy the Federation.

This unforgettable and suspenseful Star Trek: The Original Series adventure follows the Enterprise crew in a desperate rescue mission to the past to save First Officer Spock and stop the Klingons from changing the future forever. The USS Enterprise is on a peaceful mission at Starbase 12 when a bizarre cosmic phenomenon causes a Klingon ship to suddenly vanish—with Spock aboard for the ride. Spock’s last message from the Klingon ship is cryptic and frightening. The Klingons are traveling into the past, searching for the one man who holds the key to the furure. If they can kill that man, the course of history will be changed—and the Federation will be destroyed!

Benjamin January nd his wife, Rose, are en route to Mexico, where January''s close friend is being held for a murder he says he did not commit. Can Benjamin clear him before he is executed?

Benjamin January made his debut in bestselling author Barbara Hambly''s A Free Man of Color, a haunting mélange of history and mystery. Now he returns in another novel of greed, madness, and murder amid the dark shadows and dazzling society of old New Orleans, named a Notable Book of the Year by the New York Times. The summer of 1833 has been one of brazen heat and brutal pestilence, as the city is stalked by Bronze John—the popular name for the deadly yellow fever epidemic that tests the healing skills of doctor and voodoo alike. Even as Benjamin January tends the dying at Charity Hospital during the steaming nights, he continues his work as a music teacher during the day. When he is asked to pass a message from a runaway slave to the servant of one of his students, January finds himself swept into a tempest of lies, greed, and murder that rivals the storms battering New Orleans. And to find the truth he must risk his freedom...and his very life.

New York Times–bestselling author: After a premonition of death, a young wizard-in-training attempts to stop her sister’s wedding. It’s normal for a young girl to be jealous of her sister’s impending wedding, and Kyra is jealous indeed. A plain looking young magic student whose incipient wizardly abilities have done nothing to attract the attentions of the boys of her town, she is not surprised to learn that her sister has caught the eye of one of the city’s wealthiest merchants. But she is alarmed by some of the signs that are coming up in her prognostication lessons. Water turns to blood, the death card haunts her tarot practice, and finally she has a specific vision: that her sister will die the day she takes her vows. Using every trick in her small magic arsenal, Kyra attempts to disrupt the wedding, going up against a force more powerful than any magic: an impatient bride. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

New York Times bestselling author Barbara Hambly returns to the Star Wars(r) universe to tell a breathtaking tale of a mysterious world where the battle between the New Republic and the Empire takes a shocking new twist.... Nam Chorios is a barren backwater world--once a dreaded prison colony, now home to a fanatic religious cult. It is here that Princess Leia has been taken captive by a ruthless and charismatic warlord bent on destroying the New Republic. Meanwhile, Luke lands on a mysterious planet in search of his lost love, Callista, only to discover the Force is his own worst enemy. But worst of all, as Han, Chewie, and Lando leave Coruscant on a desperate rescue mission, a strange life-form, unlike any the galaxy has ever seen, awakens...a life-form so malevolent it will destroy everything--both Empire and New Republic--on its path to domination. Features a bonus section following the novel that includes a primer on the Star Wars expanded universe, and over half a dozen excerpts from some of the most popular Star Wars books of the last thirty years!

“Excellent.”—Library Journal A slave of Dracula emerges from the shadows in a terrifying reinvention of Bram Stoker’s classic novel. Renfield, confined to an asylum, obsesses in his diary, pens letters of insane passion to his wife, and still answers his Master’s calling. Ordered to hunt and kill Van Helsing, Renfield complies, setting the stage for the ultimate battle between good and evil, the living and the dead. It will take him from the dark crypts of Dracula’s castle to the more personal darkness of his own descent into madness, and the shocking truth of where it all began. “Hambly creates a past for this possessed man via his diaries and letters to his wife. . . . [she] superbly weaves Stoker’s plot and style with her own, producing one of the best recent vampire yarns.”—Booklist

The new Benjamin January novel from the best-selling author RAN AWAY. So began a score of advertisements every week in the New Orleans newspapers, advertising for slaves who''d fled their masters. But the Turk, Hüseyin Pasha, posted no such advertisement when his two lovely concubines disappeared. And when a witness proclaimed he''d seen the ''devilish infidel'' hurl their dead bodies out of a window, everyone was willing to believe him the murderer. Only Benjamin January, who knows the Turk of old, is willing to seek for the true culprit, endangering his own life in the process . . .

Five years after defeating the Dark Ones, the embattled inhabitants of the once-great Keep of Dare face a yet more deadly foe. An icy-cold force was spreading across the northlands, spawning strange creatures that killed everything in their grisly path . . . Archmage Ingold Inglorion believed the source of this monstrous evil lay in the decadent lands to the south. With him traveled Gil Patterson, the scholar-warrior from Earth who had forsaken her own universe for love of the mage. Determined to aid him in his quest, she was cursed to become the instrument of his death. Ingold''s apprentice Rudy Solis was left behind, the sole wizard standing between the Keep of Dare and the nightmare creatures besieging it. Rudy struggled tirelessly with wavering magic to ward off the virulent attacks of the ice mage''s minions. But when someone attacked the widowed queen--the woman he loved--Rudy was forced to plumb the ultimate secret locked in the black crystal heart of the Keep of Dare . . . and so decide the fate of the world.

Welcome to Hollywood of the 1920s: a world filled with glamour, fake names . . . and the occasional felony! July, 1924. After nine months of living in Hollywood and working as a companion to her beautiful silent-movie star sister-in-law, young British widow Emma Blackstone is settling into her new role: doctoring film scenarios whenever the regular scenarist is overwhelmed with work, which seems to be most of the time. Shoots for the Western movie Our Tiny Miracle are in full swing, with little seven-year-old Susy Sweetchild playing the lead and acting most professionally. Maybe too professionally, Emma thinks, shocked to the core when the child star is nearly killed in a stunt scene and her mother - former screen siren Selina Sutton - seems only to care that Susy gets the job done. But Emma''s concerns only worsen when news reaches her that Susy and her mother have been kidnapped. The ransom note says to keep the cops out of it, so it''s up to Emma and Kitty to find them before the unthinkable happens and Emma is forced to rewrite Our Tiny Miracle with a far more tragic ending . . . New York Times bestselling author Barbara Hambly once again brings the glamour and intrigue of Hollywood to life! An unputdownable mystery for fans of female-fronted historical mysteries set in the roaring twenties.

Lord John Aversin—with the help of his mageborn wife, Jenny Waynest—has fought and defeated two dragons, earning the title of Dragonsbane. But there are creatures more terrifying than dragons. Demonspawn from a dark dimension have learned to drink the magic—and the souls—of mages and dragons alike, turning their victims into empty vessels. And now they''ve stolen John and Jenny''s mageborn son, twelve-year-old Ian. In desperation, John seeks the help of the eldest and strongest dragon: Morkeleb the Black. But the demons have allies, too: a vast army poised to plunge the Realm into civil war. In the coming struggle, Morkeleb will sacrifice what he values most. Jenny will question everything she trusts and believes in. And John will embark on a perilous quest for the only things capable of defeating such powerful demons—even more powerful demons . . .

In 1865, in the wake of her husband''s assassination, Mary Todd Lincoln struggles to cope amid the animosity and confusion that surrounds her, in a historical novel that captures the saga of one of the most misunderstood women in American history, from her privileged youth in the South to the difficulties of her later years. Reprint.

Simon. Something frightful has happened to Jamie. Please come . . . When James Asher is found unconscious in the cemetery of the Church of St. Clare Pieds-Nus with multiple puncture-wounds in his throat and arms, his wife, Lydia, knows of only one person to call: the vampire Don Simon Ysidro. Old friend and old adversary, he is the only one who can help Lydia protect her unconscious, fevered husband from the vampires of Paris. Why James has been attacked – and why he was called to Paris in the first place – Lydia has no idea. But she knows that she must find out, and quickly. For with James wavering between life and death, and war descending on the world, their slim chance of saving themselves from the vampires grows slimmer with each passing day . . .

The vampire hunting spy goes to China to investigate a new form of Undead lurking among Peking’s criminal underworld in this “lush and delicious read” (Publishers Weekly). China, 1912. James Asher, his brilliant wife Lydia, and the old occultist and vampire hunter Dr. Solomon Karlebach have journeyed to the new-born Republic of China to investigate the rumor that a mindless breed of Undead known as the Others have begun to multiply in the hills west of Peking. Even vampires fear the Others, but some factions of the criminal underworld plan to turn the powerful horde into an unstoppable weapon. Alongside his old vampire partner, Don Simon Ysidro, Asher embarks on a dangerous hunt. But meanwhile, somewhere in the city’s labyrinth, the Peking vampires—known as the Magistrates of Hell—are waiting with their own sinister agenda. “Balancing the excitement of dangerous chases through mines full of Undead with the intellectual satisfaction of solving a political mystery, this is a lush and delicious read.” —Publishers Weekly

Faced with an attempt by the land chiefs to oust the King, and with the efforts of her own family to re-enslave her, Raeshaldis must play a deadly guessing-game while an even more terrible threat awaits.

Dragonsbane -- Dragonshadow.

Those who loved Cold Mountain or Geraldine Brooks’s March will embrace and long remember this spellbinding novel of two remarkable women torn apart by conflict, sustained by literature and art, united by friendship and hope. As brother turns against brother in the bloodbath of the Civil War, two young women sacrifice everything but their friendship. Susanna Ashford is the Southerner, living on a plantation surrounded by scarred and blood-soaked battlefields. Cora Poole is the Northerner, on an isolated Maine island, her beloved husband fighting for the Confederacy. Through the letters the two women exchange, they speak of the ordeal of a familiar world torn apart by tragedy. And yet their unique friendship will help mend the fabric of a ravaged nation. The two women write about books and art, about loss and longing, about their future and the future of their country. About love. About being a woman in nineteenth-century America. About the triumphant resilience of the human spirit. Their voices and their stories are delineated in indomitable prose by an award-winning writer who captures in intimate detail a singular moment in time. In Homeland, Barbara Hambly takes readers on a unique odyssey across a landscape treacherous with hardship and hatred. She paints a passionate masterpiece of a friendship that not only transforms our understanding of the most heart-wrenching era of American history but celebrates the power of women to change their world.

Nineteenth-century New Orleans is a blazing hotbed of scorching politics and personal vendettas. And it''s into this fire that Benjamin January falls when he is hired to follow Oliver Weems, a bank official who has absconded with $100,000 in gold and securities. But it''s more than just a job for January. The missing money is vital to the survival of the school for freed slaves that he and his wife Rose have founded. Following the suspected embezzler--and the money--onto the steamboat Silver Moon, January, Rose, and their friend Hannibal Sefton are sworn to secrecy about the crime until they can find the trunks containing the stolen loot. And then the unexpected happens: Weems is found murdered and suddenly the job of finding the pirated stash grows not only more difficult--but more deadly. There is no shortage of suspects--from the sinister slave-dealer to the bullying steamship pilot to the suspiciously innocent "lady" with connections to every river pirate in the riotous port of Natchez-Under-the-Hill--who all seem to have something to hide. Now, with time running out, January seeks clues wherever he can find them--and allies among whoever can help. Working in tandem with a young planter named Jefferson Davies, he must uncover the dark web of corruption, betrayal, and greed that has already cost one man his life...and, if he can''t catch a brutal, remorseless killer, will soon cost January and his friends theirs.

A young woman rises from the streets to battle a sinister evil in this magical fantasy adventure by the bestselling author of the Darwath series. Something is amiss with the world’s magic. Spells don’t work the way they used to—when they work at all. Only the powers of the Crystal Mages remain as they were, powers founded on the use of the mystical element adamis, the harvesting of which has enslaved the peoples of the Twilight Lands. They need a hero. At the same time, ravenous beasts have begun to appear, legendary creatures that seem to be proof against any magic. And Clea Stylachos, granddaughter of a great sage of the Twilight people, has reason to fear that the Crystal Mages, instead of seeking to defeat these insanely destructive monsters, are attempting to weaponize them in their quest for power. Clea’s only hope to save her people is a wizard who retains his power, one who will not betray her, either to the great merchant houses or to the all-entangling web of the Crystal Mages. But that wizard—Ithrazel the Cursed, destroyer of a city and magically imprisoned to suffer undying, unremitting torment—wants nothing to do with saving the world, helping a hero, or unraveling the terrible secret at the heart of the Crystal Mages’ plans. From the slums and tunnels of the slave-city of Morne, to the watery wilderness of the Twilight lands, to the halls of her father’s palace and the spell-soaked mysteries of the Crystal Mages’ House of Glass, Clea works to untwist the deadly riddles of magic and monsters—to free her mother’s disenfranchised people from slavery under her father’s conquering forces. To save her mageborn brother from the Crystal Mages’ power; to control a sorcerer legendary for his deed of evil; to keep her own small band of friends one step ahead of her father’s troops and the Crystal Order’s spells. She is the Iron Princess, and she knows she must prevail or die. But at what cost to herself? “Rich and complex, The Iron Princess is an absolute treat for fantasy fans. With thrilling characters and lush, nuanced world-building, this one will burn a hole through the nightstand and leave readers with wild dreams of family secrets, dynastic intrigue, and unexpected heroes who are so much more than they appear.” —Cherie Priest, author of Boneshaker Praise for New York Times–bestseller Barbara Hambly “A fabulously talented writer.” —Charlaine Harris, bestselling author “I think what is really special about [Hambly’s] books . . . is a richness of setting combined with a cast of characters that you’d love to actually know.” —SFSite “Elegant, intelligent, and entertaining.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review on Dragonshadow

Once the most powerful mage in the land, Jenny Waynest is now a broken woman. After being possessed and corrupted by the demon Amayon, she lost everything she holds dear—even the trust of her husband. Yet Lord John Aversin has torments of his own: memories of the beautiful and cruel Aohila, demon queen of a rival hell, whom he''d tricked into providing the help he needed to free Jenny. Now, condemned to death for trafficking with demons, John cannot forgive himself for opening the door to a far greater evil—an evil that still haunts his dreams. And not only his dreams . . . For a vengeful Aohila needs mortal aid in realms beyond her power, and who better to provide it than Lord John? Blackmailed into cooperating, John must fight his way through unimaginable horrors in quest of a prize that may doom the world he has left behind . . .

DIVDIVThe wizard Antryg must return from his Earthly exile when his lover, computer programmer Joanna Sheraton, is kidnapped by an otherworldly evil/divDIV /divDIVJoanna Sheraton is in love with a wizard. Once an ordinary Californian computer programmer, her life was upended when she was first taken across the Void to a world of magic, where an evil mage threatened to destroy that world and ours. With the help of Antryg, a brilliant wizard who quickly stole her heart, she learned to navigate that strange other land and saved the universe from destruction. When the sinister king sentenced Joanna and her lover to death, they fled back to Earth, to live quietly under the California sun./divDIV /divDIVBut their troubles have followed them. A stranger dressed in wizard’s garb kidnaps Joanna, and Antryg gives pursuit back across the Void. What he finds is a world once again in peril, and he must give aid to the Wizard’s Council that condemned him if he is ever to see his love again./divDIV /divDIVThis ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection./divDIV /div /div

In such stunning novels of crime and character as Die Upon a Kiss, Sold Down the River, and A Free Man of Color, Benjamin January tracked down killers through the sensuous, atmospheric, dangerously beautiful world of Old New Orleans. Now, in this new novel by bestselling author Barbara Hambly, he follows a trail of murder from illicit back alleys to glittering mansions to a dark place where the oldest and deadliest secrets lie buried . . . Wet Grave It’s 1835 and the relentless glare of the late July sun has slowed New Orleans to a standstill. When Hesione LeGros--once a corsair’s jeweled mistress, now a raddled hag--is found slashed to death in a shanty on the fringe of New Orleans’s most lawless quarter, there are few to care. But one of them is Benjamin January, musician and teacher. He well recalls her blazing ebony beauty when she appeared, exquisitely gowned and handy with a stiletto, at a demimonde banquet years ago. Who would want to kill this woman now--Hessy, they said, would turn a trick for a bottle of rum--had some quarrelsome “customer” decided to do away with her? Or could it be one of the sexual predators who roamed the dark and seedy streets? Or--as Benjamin comes to suspect--was her killer someone she knew, someone whose careful search of her shack suggests a cold-blooded crime? Someone whose boot left a chillingly distinctive print . . . His inquiries at taverns, markets, and slave dances reveal little about “Hellfire Hessy” since her glory days in Barataria Bay, once the lair of gentlemen pirates. Then the murder is swept from his mind by the delivery of a crate filled with contraband rifles--and yet another telltale boot print left by its claimant. When a murder swiftly follows, Ben and Rose Vitrac, the woman he loves, fear the workings of a serpentine mind and a treacherous plot: one only they can hope to thwart in time. All too soon they are fugitives of color in the stormy bayous and marshes of slave-stealer country, headed for smugglers’ haunts and sinister plantations, where one false step could be their last toward a...Wet Grave.

In A Free Man of Color and Sold Down the River, Benjamin January guided readers through the seductive maze of New Orleans'' darkest quarters. Now January joins the orchestra of the city''s top opera house — only to become enmeshed in a web of hate and greed more murderous than any drama onstage. In 1835, the cold February streets glitter with masked revelers in Carnival costumes. An even more brilliant display is promised at the American Theater, where impresario Lorenzo Belaggio has brought the first Italian opera to town. But it''s pitch-black in the muddy alley outside the stage door when Benjamin January, coming from rehearsal with the orchestra, hears a slurred whisper, sees the flash of a knife, and is himself wounded as he rescues Belaggio from a vicious attack. The bombastic impresario first accuses two of his tenors, then suspects his rival, the manager of New Orleans'' other opera company. Could competition for audiences really provoke such violent skulduggery? Or has Belaggio taken too many chances in the catfight between two sopranos, one superseded by the other as his mistress and his prima donna? But burning in January''s mind and heart is a darker possibility. The opera Belaggio plans to present — a magnificent version of Othello — strikes a shocking chord in this culture. Is the murderous tragedy of the noble Moor and his lady, the spectacle of a black man''s passion for a white beauty, one that some Creole citizen — or American parvenu — would do anything to keep off the stage? Bloody threats and voodoo signs, poison and brutal murder seem to implicate many strange bedfellows. And Benjamin must discover who — in rage, retribution, or an insidious new commerce in this beautiful cutthroat city — will kill and kill ... and who will Die Upon a Kiss.

The novels of New York Times bestselling author Barbara Hambly have broken new ground in the realm of fantasy. With a sweeping cast of characters whose powers are both awesome and heartachingly limited, the Dragon series is built around the touching relationship between a husband and wife separated by a flood of violence and chaos. Condemned to die for consorting with demons, dragonslayer Lord John Aversin sits in a dank prison cell and calculates the odds of escape, while smelling the smoke of the executioners’ pyres. In Winterlands, Jenny Waynest pays a heavy price for choosing to be human, mourning the loss of her husband, Lord John, and the dangers that engulf her family. But in a season of the Dragon Star, strange miracles are about to transpire. As a pitched battle between the Hellspawn and the human rages, Jenny and John will be reunited in a city under siege. And there, they will have one last chance to understand all that has happened to them and why, who their true enemies and true allies are, and most of all, for what magical purpose each has been chosen. A vast adventure and a powerful mystery teeming with demons and witches, gnomes and dragons, Dragonstar explores profound issues of faith, fate, and technology–while obscuring long held boundaries between good and evil, love and hate, what is human and what is fantastic. With this glorious finale to a breathtaking series, Barbara Hambly establishes herself as one of the most visionary and inventive storytellers in the field of fantasy fiction today.

No one can talk to the dead . . . can they? Free man of color Benjamin January gets caught up in a strange, spiritual world that might lead to his own demise, as he hunts for a missing teenager in this gripping, atmospheric historical mystery. New Orleans, 1840. Freshly home from a dangerous journey, that last thing Benjamin January wants to do is leave his wife and young sons again. But when old friends Henri and Chloe Viellard ask for his help tracking down a missing girl in distant New York, he can''t say no. Three weeks ago, seventeen-year-old Eve Russell boarded a steam-boat - and never got off it. Mrs Russell is adamant Eve''s been kidnapped, but how could someone remove a teenager from a crowded deck in broad daylight? And why would anyone target Eve? The answer lies in New York, a hotbed of new religions and beliefs, of human circuses and freak shows . . . and of blackbirders, who''ll use any opportunity to kidnap a free man of color and sell him into slavery. January''s determined to uncover the truth, but will he ever be able to return to New Orleans to share it?

During the carnage of World War One, James Asher joins forces with the vampires of Europe to counter an even deadlier threat. The vampires call them ‘The Others’. Neither living nor dead, the revenants are mindless and unstoppable – and in the carnage of the First World War, governments already running short of men to throw into battle might be very interested in soldiers who don’t ask questions and are hard to kill. Front-line volunteer nurse Lydia Asher is horrified to learn that someone has found a way to control revenants, and is creating them for this purpose. Back in London, Lydia’s husband, former spy James Asher, is even more appalled to learn that revenants are beginning to show up in England, on the loose. Since revenants devour vampires, the vampires of Europe – most of whom are at the Front, feeding completely unnoticed on the dying – join forces with the Ashers to find the source of the threat before the world is overwhelmed.

Performance by Anthony Heald.

Three romantic suspense stories that combine horror and romance.

A Hollywood diva. A Chinese curse. A suspense-filled fantasy from the New York Times–bestselling author “who can write well in any genre” (Charlaine Harris). It is 1923, and silent film reigns in Hollywood. Of all the starlets, none is more beloved than Chrysanda Flamande, a diva as brilliant as she is difficult to manage. Handling her falls to Norah, widow of Chrysanda’s dead brother. She has always done her job well, but she was never equipped to deal with murder. When a violent killing shocks Chrysanda’s entourage, and other weird happenings swiftly follow, Norah begins to suspect that some strange power is stalking the star. In Chinatown she receives warning that a curse has been placed on the actress as vengeance for wearing a sacred amulet in one of her films—and this curse could mean death for all who surround her. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Barbara Hambly, including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

A clever turnabout vampire yarn in which a professor is hired by a member of old London''s undead to ferret out the fiend who is killing off his ghastly brethren.