A historical mystery in 1830s New Orleans whose protagonist is a free man of color. Dr. Benjamin January, back in America after 15 years in Paris where he became a surgeon, goes to the help of a woman. In revenge, he is framed by her enemies for murder and must clear his name. A look at the complicated race relations of the period in New Orleans.

In 19th century New Orleans, free man of color Benjamin January tries to clear the name of his sister, a voodoo practitioner. She is accused of supplying the arsenic which a woman used to kill her husband.

In 1835 New Orleans, Benjamin January, a free man of color, becomes caught up in a deadly plot when he rescues opera impresario Lorenzo Belaggio, who has brought a production of the opera "Othello" to town, from a violent attack

In 1838, when a friend is accused of killing the son of a powerful Mexican landowner, Benjamin January and his wife, Rose, head to Mexico City to uncover the truth and find a city torn by political unrest and violence.

Benjamin January is forced to travel to Haiti to seek his family's lost treasure, in order to save everything he holds dear
When Jefferson Vitrack – the white half-brother of Benjamin January's wife - turns up on January's doorstep in the summer of 1838 claiming he has discovered a clue to the whereabouts of the family's lost treasure, January has no hesitation about refusing to help look for it. For the treasure lies...

"When British spymaster Sir John Oldmixton offers Benjamin January a hundred dollars to find the murderer of an Englishman whose body has been found floating in the New Basin Canal, Benjamin turns him down immediately. As a free man of colour in New Orleans in the sweltering July of 1839, he knows this is not something he should get mixed up in. But when clues to the dead man's identity link the death to another murder, in another July in January's...

"April, 1840. Benjamin January knows no black person in their right mind would willingly go to the Republic of Texas but when his former pupil Selina Bellinger is kidnapped and enslaved, he has no choice. Once there he is saved from being hanged by Valentina Taggart, wife of the wealthy landowner of Rancho Perdition. After Valentina is accused of the murder of her husband, she in turn calls on Benjamin for help. To do so, he must abandon the safe...

New Orleans, 1840. Benjamin January has little use for politicians, but when a giant rally is planned to stir up support for the Whig presidential candidate, he finds himself intrigued. Trouble is brewing though, both political and romantic, and soon January finds himself investigating a murder ... with an innocent woman's life on the line.