Barbara Hambly, A Free Man of Color

For some reason, I finally decided to give this series a try. Set in New Orleans in 1833, the main character is Benjamin January, a free man of color who is a musician but also trained as a doctor in Paris. He has returned home to New Orleans after many years in Paris; his Moroccan wife died and he felt the need to get away from all the things that reminded him of her. The New Orleans he returns to is much different. Hambly provides a lot of really interesting detail about the society of this era, particularly in NO, and the changes that were leading up to the Civil War.