...Or is it? It certainly seems to be mana, but it's not the Titan's Day miracle one might expect. First of all, the ownership of the mana reserves is in question, with larger government stepping in to verify that there are no odd side-effects to exposure to the supposed mana and, potentially stepping in to take possession of the find, while drilling for oil is at a standstill, leaving oil workers out of work and tempers are flaring between the locals who think they should be the ones to benefit from the find and outsiders who are moving to Titanshade in the hopes of a better future. All taken together, Titanshade is just as dirty and dangerous as before, but quite a bit more politically charged and volatile. It looks like Detective Carter and Ajax won't be taking any time off for Titan's Day.
As the lead detective present at the event where an oil well accidentally struck mana, Detective Carter has been in the headlines, attracting unwanted attention. He was benched for a while, but at the beginning of Titan's Day, he and Ajax are finally getting out from behind their desks and back to homicide detective work, starting with a low-profile death of a prostitute or a "Candy" as they call them in Titanshade. Candies live hard lives and a dead Candy isn't likely to make too big a splash in the newspaper, which is precisely why the case was assigned to Carter. Of course, things don't quite add up and Carter finds himself in deeper water than he had expected with this case. Further, another case gets called in across the street and Carter and Ajax respond to find out that it's a gruesome mob-related killing. When Carter runs into Matt Dungan, a buddy from back in the day who's now in the Organized Crime Unit (OCU), his long-lost-friend tries to get Carter to use his celebrity status to call in a favor from a disreputable contact and, when Carter tries to refuse, he threatens to take the Candy murder from Carter and then may or may not get around to solving it. Carter really can't afford to be the big boy scout he is, but what can you do?
Titan's Day is a great follow-up to Titanshade, further developing the relationship of beloved characters and advancing Titanshade as it moves from oil to this new mana strike... and reveals some interesting twists along the way.
If you haven't yet read Titanshade and this sounds the least bit intriguing, I highly recommend you start there. If you have read Titanshade and liked it, get yourself a copy of Titan's Day; you'll be glad you did.
