Gunshy
A Baltimore Historical Mystery
By Louise Titchener(Hard Shell Word Factory, 2004)
Laura Lippman has gained a reputation as an articulate, sympathetic
chronicler of life in Baltimore. Louise Titchener, though less well known,
deserves a similar reputation.
Her latest effort, Gunshy, is a case in point. Set in the discordant days
after the Civil War, the novel depicts the tensions below the surface of
what was, at heart, a Southern city. Oliver Redcastle, former Union sniper
and Pinkerton operative, has retired to Baltimore, after inheriting a house
in the city, with the intention of raising his daughter and establishing
himself in a less hazardous vocation.
The reader knows, even if Redcastle doesn't, that he can't escape his past
that easily. He is tracked down by John D. Rockefeller, no less, who coerces
him into investigating the deaths of three men in a railroad accident that
might have been a failed attempt at assassinating Rockefeller. Redcastle
investigates and uncovers something rather more momentous than the planned
murder of a plutocrat.
Titchener writes well, with realistic dialogue, believable characters, and
an obvious affection for her chosen city. A little more copyediting would
have been helpful - Redcastle is continually siting at targets through his
gunsite - but the author has generally been well-served by her publisher.
I read the book as a trade paperback, but Hard Shell Word Factory also
publishes it electronically for about half the price of the print version,
which puts it in the same price range as a mass-market paperback. It can be
purchased directly from www.hardshell.com <http://www.hardshell.com/> , from
Kathy Harig at Mystery Loves Company in Baltimore
(www.mysterylovescompany.com <http://www.mysterylovescompany.com/> ) or from
Amazon.
Clyde Linsley
"Saving Louisa" (Berkley 2003)
"Death of a Mill Girl" (Berkley 2002)
"Death Spiral" (Avalon 2000)
BUMPED OFF IN BALTIMORE
LOUISE TITCHENER
Hard Shell Word Factory
July 2005
0-7599-3741-9
Mystery
Rating: 5
Toni Credella’s got big problems, not the least of which is that the police have her fingered as a prime suspect when she and dead bodies start showing up in the same places. Of course, the fact that she shot and killed one of theirs a while back doesn't do much to lessen their suspicion—even if a jury did find that she fired the shots that killed her abusive husband in an act of self-defense.
Toni’s moved on since then. Now she’s got a fledgling design business and, when things are slow, she works as a part time private investigator-in-training for Angus Maloney. That’s how she ends up as a bodyguard for the beautiful, opera singing Regina Fioni, who has man troubles of her own–namely an old boyfriend who can’t take no for an answer. To complicate matters, Toni’s long lost Uncle Vannie shows up in Baltimore and then just as mysteriously disappears again right after Regina's boyfriend is found with his throat slit.
Following a trail of leads as twisted as a bowl of fettuccine at her parents’ restaurant in Little Italy, Toni travels from Baltimore to Las Vegas and back again in an effort to track down Vannie, prove her own innocence and keep Regina from making a mess of her life.
Titchener has hit a home run with witty, tough, and thoroughly likable Toni Credella. I'll be anxiously awaiting her next adventure.
