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My life's work was to be a 600-page spoof on every Western movie ever made. I got as far as naming the Table of Contents before abandoning it for a new project — Tierra del Oro. The writing of this 9-novel historical family saga has been the most satisfying of all my endeavors.
Other writers will comprehend the giddiness of finishing a scene that brought tears to the eyes, or elicited a “Yes!” from an exhausted soul who labored in an obscure corner until the chapter ended...in a cliffhanger. These are the things that push us onward into the night, or bring us fresh to the page in the dawn light, eager to see for ourselves “what comes next.”
Reviewed by Ray Simmons for Readers' Favorite
Forty Grains of Black Powder is a generational saga about a fictional mestizo family in Mexico. It is book one in the tale of the Cordero Clan. The story starts in 1862 when the young Marietta, the mother of the protagonist, spots a handsome stranger and falls in love. She is, typically, a sheltered young Spanish girl from a cultured family. The man woos her with kindness and promises, but after the marriage she finds it's all a lie. Marrying Luis will be the greatest mistake of her life, and RLB Hartmann writes it with such detail and realism that you feel it must be a mistake countless innocent young girls from every culture on Earth have made. Marietta's choice will embroil her, her son, and apparently generations to come in a web of murder, deceit, treasure, and love.
As I write this review, the phrases "high drama" and "great literature" keep popping into my mind. I guess time and the opinions of readers will decide which category Forty Grains of Black Powder will ultimately fall under. RLB Hartmann writes with too strong a sense of place and attention to detail for the story of Trouble, the young protagonist, to be taken lightly. There are so many dramatic incidents in Forty Grains of Black Powder that it would be easy at first glance to write it off as a soap opera, but the powerful, insightful look into the lives of the characters in this era seems just too realistic to be soap. I think this may be "great literature."
