5 stars
First Sentence: The rule was, you played them into the cemetery with sadness, but you left grief at the side of the grave.
Thoughts: At long last, we find out what secrets Hannibal Sefton has been hiding. It all began when the wrong body fell out of a coffin.
Hannibal was with Ben and several of their fellow musicians playing the funeral of another fellow musician, Rameses Ramilles. He had recently died of fever leaving behind a wife, a couple of children, and a rivalry between his mother and mother-in-law who were determined to out-mourn each other. When Rameses drunk brother-in-law dropped his coffin, a white man fell out. Not just any white man, but Patrick Derryhick who had been one of Hannibal’s classmates at Oxford.
Despite his recent vows to cut back on the laudanum, Hannibal immediately retreated to the bottle to deal with his shock. Ben, meanwhile, began investigating with Lt. Shaw. He found out that the funeral home where Rameses’ body had been resting the night before was right behind the hotel where Patrick and his friends were staying. These friends were his ward, Germanicus Stuart Viscount Foxford, Gerry’s uncle Diogenes Stuart, and their business manager, Mr. Droudge. While Shaw distracted the Irish, Ben checked their rooms. He found Patrick’s bloodstained watch under Gerry’s bed.
And so the Viscount Foxford ended up in the Cabildo, much to Hannibal’s distress. Once Ben dragged him out of bed and sobered him up, Hannibal went to visit Gerry in jail. He told the young Viscount how his father had died in Paris. He knew because he was there, along with Patrick. That thousand-guinea violin Hannibal’s been carrying around? That was Gerry’s father’s. He took it after the former Viscount toppled into the Seine.
Gerry refuses to say much about why Patrick was so het up the night he was killed or where he, Gerry, was or who he was with. Obviously there is a Lady involved. Specifically a New Orleans lady who met Gerry in Paris the year before and vanished, pursued by a mysterious English lord of dubious background. Gerry tracked her down to her home city with matrimony on his mind but she’s refusing for reasons no one will talk about.
Slowly Ben picks apart the knot of mystery surrounding Gerry’s romance. This knot turns out to be revealing Hannibal’s true identity and the reason why he won’t go back to Ireland.
I love Hannibal so I’m very happy we finally get to know more about him. I’m also glad that he’s trying to kick the laudanum habit, despite the fact that the shock of his past catching up to him sends him back to the whiskey. Understandable, he’s had a rough time. One step at a time, Hannibal.
The Eclectic Reviewer 