Hard Water — Louise Titchener

It's a scorching July in the summer of 1884. William Pinkerton has sent Oliver Redcastle to the Midwestern island paradise of Put-in-Bay. The assignment seems simple: capture a tight-rope walking train robber. But two beautiful women, a dangerous cult, and reminders of Oliver's Civil War past complicate the mission. The sharpshooting detective must fight his way free of a tangled web of personal and professional hazards. In the process he meets John Brown Jr., Jay Cooke, Ulysses S. Grant, and some of the other powerbrokers that made the Midwest a center of industry and political clout in this fascinating period of American history.