First Baltimore? Next ... Ohio?

Revealing Baltimore’s charm might seem a daunting task even for a veteran novelist like Madison Smartt Bell. Where’s he been that he hasn’t seen “The Wire’’? Well, appears he’s been in Baltimore, his adopted hometown, and he joins an interesting group of writers that Crown Journeys (a Random House trademark) has recruited to walk through some equally interesting cities. Inside the front and back covers is a handsome map with a key to 15 places Bell writes about in “Charm City: A Walk Through Baltimore” (233 pp., $16.95). There’s more than the Inner Harbor and Camden Yards to the city that spawned John Waters and Nancy Pelosi. Bell revels in its history and neighborhoods, its sights and stories. Bell’s teammates among Crown’s walking writers include Chuck Palahniuk (Portland, Ore.), Ishmael Reed (Oakland, Calif.), Christopher Buckley (where else but Pelosi’s new hometown), Kinky Friedman (Austin, Texas), and Edwidge Danticat (Jacmel, Haiti), about whose homeland Bell has written a trilogy of historical novels.