On Edge

Charisma Inc. #6

by Louise Titchener, Ruth Glick (creator), Eileen Buckholtz (creator)

Amber and Samantha take part in an international high-pressure ice show in London to learn the details of whether or not a Communist bloc skater is going to defect.

Genres: Young Adult

150 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published November 1, 1988

About the author

Louise was born in Detroit, Michigan, USA. She began to write short stories in high school and continued to write in college. She married a philosophy student, and they moved to Ohio, where she obtained a Masters degree and taught freshman English. Her husband became a Philosophy Professor at the University of Maryland. She and her husband had two children. While staying at home with her son and daughter she began to write in earnest. Those first efforts remain unsold.

The family moved to Maryland, where she joined a literary critique group. There she wrote a collaborative effort with three other women, Ruth Glick, Carolyn Males and Eileen Buckholtz. The result was a romance novel, "Love is Elected", was published by Silhouette Books under the pseudonym Alyssa Howard. The foursome also wrote another novel, Southern Persuasion. The collaborators decided to split into groups of two. Louise wrote in collaboration with Ruth Glick under the pseudonyms Alexis Hill, Alexis Hill Jordan and Tess Marlowe, and in collaboration with Carolyn Males as Clare Richards and Clare Richmond. She also wrote alone under the pseudonyms of Anne Silverlock and Jane Silverwood. She published fantasy and mystery novels under her real name: Louise Titchener. She said: "I'm a story-teller; I'm not a romance writer, mystery writer, or suspense writer per se. I tell all different kinds of stories. I certainly would not recommend writing in so many genres to other writers -- it's not the way to build an audience or a career in today's market."

With their children grown, Louise and her husband decided to move from the Maryland suburbs to Baltimore's inner city so they could enjoy the harbor. Many of Louise's mysteries are set in Baltimore, including her historical series featuring Oliver Redcastle. Louise and her husband have recently migrated to Sarasota, Florida. When Louise isn't writing fiction, she paints, sails, bicycles and kayaks around her new home in Sarasota, Florida.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 2 out of 5]

So, this series was my childhood best friend's favorite, and I read them all over a course of a week back in 1988, but remembered very little about them. This one was the ONLY one I've ever seen at a used bookstore, and I vaguely had remembered it as "the best one " because it was about figure skating (I was 10, and I believe 1988 was an Olympic year? Give some grace 😆). It hasn't aged well, with a plot centering around an East German figure skater planning to defect to the USA. I didn't Google, but I think the Berlin Wall fell shortly after this book was written? At any rate, the plot is convoluted, but there are beautiful teenaged heroines trained as secret agents, a love triangle and a skating diva with a mean streak, so lots of campy ridiculous action and intrigue, at least for some precocious ten year old. I was entertained, but will be passing this one along to said childhood friend with her Xmas package this year and probably not ever reading any of these again, though they're totally time capsule material. 2 stars from modern me, but 5 from 10 year old version of me, if memory serves.