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Charles O'Brien began writing historical mystery novels from a lifelong love of delving into the past. It began in third grade with the tales of King Arthur and his knights of the Round Table, and evolved into a career teaching and researching history at Western Illinois University in Macomb, IL. Along the way, he served as an army medic in Korea and as vicar of a small church on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi. In his career in academe, Charles had researched and taught a wide range of topics on American and European history. His historical mystery series, featuring Anne Cartier and Colonel Paul de Saint-Martin, is set in England and France in the years leading to the French Revolution. Charles lives in Williamstown, a lively small college town in the Berkshire Mountains of western Massachusetts.
The pace is relentless; the characters are richly and fully drawn...a complex, richly detailed, well-written historical novel. --Carl Brookins A good story in the grand style of Dumas, told with energy and verve. --Bruce Alexander .. .This sequel offers fully realized characters, a complex plot and a surprise ending sure to satisfy...The narrative flows smoothly, and O'Brien has neatly caught the tenor of the time, when being fashionable was of more importance than acting morally. FYI: Mute Witness was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. -- Publisher's Weekly O Brien provides a whole package for mystery lovers: a brave heroine and hero; several mysteries to solve; a socially conscious subplot (involving an African woman whom Sir Harry is training to be a boxer); and an evocation of a place and time that adds depth and precision to the rest of the tale. This is a historical mystery to get lost in, satisfying at every level. -- Booklist Fans of Iain Pears rich historical mysteries will want to read Black Gold, a work rich in period detail with characters that are unique to the era. Charles O'Brien is a gifted storyteller who writes about the aristocracy of the late eighteenth century from a commoner's point of view. The novel takes the moral high ground, which helps explain why the protagonists are to appealing. -- Midwest Book Review If not quite up to the high standard set by O'Brien's first historical, Mute Winess (2001), this sequel offers fully realized characters, a complex plot and a surprise ending sure to satisfy. In the winter of 1787, Col. Paul de Saint-Martin, who played a leading role in Mute Witness, travels to England to track down an Irish rogue, Captain Marurice Fitzroy, who's been accused of raping a young woman of aristocratic birth while visiting Paris. A side benefit of the trip is the opportunity to see Anne Cartier, a teacher of the deaf, whom Paul befriended in the earlier book. Anne is employed as a tutor to the young son of Sir Harry Rogers, a self-made merchant and slave-trader who resides near Bath. Paul and Sir Harry strike up a friendship during a training session of Sir Harry's prize-fighter slave, and Paul soon becomes the slaver's house guest at Combe Park. Among the ill-assorted group are Sir Harry and his wife, Lady Margaret, Captain Fitzroy, and Anne and her charge, who bears a striking resemblance to the captain. Also at Bath is the infamous Jack Roach, who is blackmailing several of the city's inhabitants, perhaps even Lady Margaret herself O'Brien has a knack for portraying strong male characters, such as Paul, Sir Harry and Burton, the Bow Street Runner investigating charges against Roach. Anne, alas, has a lot less to do than she did in Mute Witness. The narrative flows smoothly, and O'Brien has neatly caught the tenor of the time, when being fashionable was of more importance than acting morally. (June 17) FYI: Mute Witness was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. Pulishers Weekly ? June 3, 2002 pg. 68
