Rebels of Babylon (48 page)

I saw him through a flannel veil of smoke.

“Damned lot of trouble about a couple of boatloads of negroes,” he said. He sighed, although even his sighs come out like a bull’s snorts. “Lincoln puts a good face on things. Hard to tell how much he really believes. Wouldn’t want to sit down to a poker game with him. Myself, I’m not sure what the hell’s going to come of the colored man, once he’s well and truly free. You watch. Those Boston abolitionists are going to lose interest as soon as the mess is well and truly made.”

It was a worrisome expression of doubt from a fellow placed so high. I might have left the office feeling glum. But Mr. Seward, bless him, lacked the mental repose for pessimism. He smiled with tobacco-ruined teeth.

“One thing’s sure,” he said with a spark of glee. “If the negroes ever get the vote, the sonsofbitches are going to vote Republican.”

I’M EXCITED ABOUT THE RE-PUBLICATION OF THE “BY Owen Parry” series of Civil War mysteries and am grateful to Stackpole Books for undertaking it. The novels featuring Abel Jones have attracted a cult of followers, and the most frequently asked questions I field as I travel and talk on other subjects are versions of “When’s the little Welshman coming back?” While I hope to add new books to the series in the future—after fulfilling other writing commitments—I’m glad Abel’s able to huff and puff and pontificate through these first six novels again. His character was always a joy to write.

Rebels of Babylon
was, in one way, the odd duck among the Abel Jones novels: It’s set in New Orleans, a city that offers a writer endless opportunities, but which, despite repeated visits, I’ve never been able to like: I’ve found the food overrated, the jazz lacking in subtlety, the residents even more lacking in subtlety, and the whole N’awlins shtick tiresome: In other words, I reacted precisely as if I were Abel Jones.

So how could I not send him to New Orleans?

Each of the novels has a subtext regarding the complex bigotries of the time, and two,
Call Each River Jordan
and the one in your hand, confront slavery and race head-on. But
Rebels of Babylon
is the novel that seeks the heart of the matter … set in a city where “race didn’t really matter,” but the slightest difference
in skin tone did (and does). Hurricane Katrina didn’t “reveal” anything, because the problems were always evident for anyone willing to see.

And yet … I must pay the Crescent City one sincere compliment: Those who describe it (as others do San Francisco) as our “most-European city” may mean well, but get it wrong. New Orleans is one of a kind.

As Abel and I found out.

(You can keep the beads, though.)

—Ralph Peters, aka Owen Parry, March 4, 2012