Barbara Hambly - Dead water

A Free Man of Color

Fever Season

Graveyard Dust

Sold Down the River

Die Upon a Kiss

Wet Grave

Days of the Dead

DEAD WATER

A Bantam Book / August 2004

Published by Bantam Dell

A Division of Random House, Inc.

New York, New York

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved.

Copyright © 2004 by Barbara Hambly

Map and illustration copyright © 2004 by Jeffrey L. Ward

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the written permission of the publisher, except where permitted by law.

Bantam Books is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc., and the colophon is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

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Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data

Hambly, Barbara.

Dead water / Barbara Hambly.

p. cm.

1. January, Benjamin (Fictitious character)—Fiction. 2. Private investigators—Louisiana—New Orleans—Fiction. 3. Natchez-under-the-Hill (Natchez, Miss.)—Fiction. 4. Free African Americans—Fiction. 5. African American men—Fiction. 6. New Orleans (La.)—Fiction. 7. Embezzlement—Fiction. 8. Steamboats—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3558.A4215D43 2004

813'.54—dc22

2004040766

Published simultaneously in Canada

eISBN: 978-0-553-90059-0

v3.0