Barbara Hambly
Short story of 5,000 words, sequel to Hambly's Benjamin January New Orleans murder mystery series. It's astonishing enough to everyone who knows New Orleans saloon-keeper Kentucky Williams that she owns a Bible... but someone is willing to do murder to steal it. Benjamin January and his worthless white sidekick Hannibal Sefton attempt to figure out who - and why.
12) Hagar
A novelette of 13,000 words in the Benjamin January Free Man of Color historical mystery series. Benjamin is out of town again, and his wife Rose attends a party with her obnoxious mother-in-law, at a plantation owned by a free colored relative. When the white mistress of the neighboring plantation is murdered, and the house burned, it seems obvious that one of the household slaves committed the crime - but Rose seeks to prove differently.
A novelette of 12,000 words in the Benjamin January Free Man of Color historical mystery series. All of New Orleans is agog over Professor Tixall's telescope, which can reportedly see life on the Moon. Rose Janvier is convinced that it's a hoax, and a harmless one (though profitable for Professor Tixall), until one of her servants, looking through the telescope after hours, sees one of the "bat-people" of the Moon murder another one. Rose knows
...A short story in the Benjamin January Free Man of Color series. Rose Janvier, Benjamin's wife, is left at home in pre-Civil-War New Orleans when Benjamin goes off to solve a crime in another city. When the high-living brother of one of her neighbors is murdered, Rose uses her own detective skills to track down the killer, despite the fact that the white City Guards have arrested her and everyone else on the street as suspects.