Bestselling author Barbara Hambly's A Free Man of Color and Fever Season established Benjamin January as one of mystery's most exciting heroes. Now he returns in a powerful new novel, a sensual mosaic of old New Orleans, where cultures clash and murder can hover around every darkened corner....It is St. John's Eve in the summer of 1834 when Benjamin JanuaryCreole physician and music teacheris shattered by the news that his sister has been arrested for murder. The Guards have only a shadow of a case against her. But Olympemystical and rebelliousis a woman of color, whose chance for justice is slim.As Benjamin probes the allegation, he is targeted by a new threat: graveyard dust sprinkled at his door, whispering of a voodoo death curse. Now, to save Olympe's lifeand his ownBenjamin knows he must glean information wherever he can find it. For in the heavy darkness of New Orleans, the truth is what you make it, and justice can disappear with the night's warm breeze as easy as graveyard dust....From the Paperback edition.