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The Divide
2025 Spur Award Finalist Bruce Hartman returns with this stand-alone sequel to
Legend of Lost Basin.
Pursued by a bounty hunter for a crime he didn’t commit, Rory Slater flees into the wilderness, toward the inaccessible divide that blocks his way to freedom, as his beloved Elena approaches from the other side in her own quest for independence and understanding. Together they must face ordeals human and inhuman and the lurking menace of the relentless bounty hunter Yeager who, before death intervenes, helps Rory unravel the mystery of his own past.
An epic saga of adventure and self-discovery, The Divide is a stand-alone novel that follows Legend of Lost Basin (2025 Spur Award Finalist for Best Traditional Western Novel) in Bruce Hartman's Lost West Trilogy.
Pursued by a bounty hunter for a crime he didn’t commit, Rory Slater flees into the wilderness, toward the inaccessible divide that blocks his way to freedom, as his beloved Elena approaches from the other side in her own quest for independence and understanding. Together they must face ordeals human and inhuman and the lurking menace of the relentless bounty hunter Yeager who, before death intervenes, helps Rory unravel the mystery of his own past.
An epic saga of adventure and self-discovery, The Divide is a stand-alone novel that follows Legend of Lost Basin (2025 Spur Award Finalist for Best Traditional Western Novel) in Bruce Hartman's Lost West Trilogy.
237 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 1, 2025
8 people are currently reading
About the author
Bruce Hartman
17 books45 followersBruce Hartman has worked as a pianist, bookseller and attorney. The author of twelve novels, he divides his time between Pennsylvania and Colorado. He has been writing fiction for many years.
Bruce Hartman's first western, LEGEND OF LOST BASIN, was published in September 2024. Kirkus Reviews called it, "A riveting addition to the Western genre... Skillful storytelling and rich characterizations make this a must-read for fans of Westerns or those who just like good storytelling.," The book aims to transcend the western genre into the area of literary fiction. It was Finalist for the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for Best Traditional Western Novel in 2025. It was also awarded the Peacemaker Award by Western Fictioneers for Best First Western Novel.
His second western to be published was THE DIVIDE, the second book in the Lost West Trilogy.
Prior to those westerns, his most recent book was THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE'S LAST CASE, the third and final book of the Philosphical Detective Trilogy. The previous books are THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE, published in 2014, and THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE RETURNS, published in 2020. All three novels feature the iconic Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges wrestling with an extraordinary series of crimes and the equally baffling conundrums of literature and philosophy, including Zeno's paradoxes, the mind/body problem, and the mysteries of destiny, memory, personal identity and artistic creation. Kirkus Reviews called THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE "a suspenseful, pitch-perfect novel.. an intelligent, original detective novel." Midwest Book Review rated THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE RETURNS as "...highly recommended for classic detective story enthusiasts who look for complexity and intellectual challenges in their characters and stories."
Bruce Hartman's previous book, PAROLE, is a crime thriller in the tradition of Elmore Leonard about an unlikely pair of parolees from San Quentin struggling against the odds to recover their lives and fortunes in L.A. If it were a movie, it would probably be classified as an action/comedy/thriller. It has recently become available as an audiobook on Audible.
His first novel, PERFECTLY HEALTHY MAN DROPS DEAD, won the Salvo Press Mystery Novel Award and was published by Salvo Press in 2008. In 2018 it was reissued by Swallow Tail Press in a revised Tenth Anniversary Edition (both paperback and ebook).
Bruce Hartman's second book, THE RULES OF DREAMING, published by Swallow Tail Press in 2013, was awarded Kirkus Star for Books of Exceptional Merit. Kirkus Reviews called it "a mind-bending marriage of ambitious literary theory and classic murder mystery" and selected it as one of its "Top 100 Indie Books of 2013." Another mystery, THE MUSE OF VIOLENCE, was also published in 2013.
Bruce Hartman's seventh novel, POTLATCH: A Comedy, is a satirical comedy set in Philadelphia. Readers' Favorite Book Reviews called it "one of the most amusing reads ever to be published."
POTLATCH is the second entry in a projected trilogy which began with A BUTTERFLY IN PHILADELPHIA. Readers' Favorite Book Reviews called BUTTERFLY "one of the strange comic masterpieces that you're quite lucky to run across once in a very great while."
POTLATCH followed another comic novel, BIG DATA IS WATCHING YOU!, a satirical techno-dystopia set in a future in which the all-powerful force of Big Data rules humanity through the Internet of Things and the corporate power of the FANGs. It is the story of how one defiant customer foils the conspiracy to delete humanity from Google Earth. A slightly revised version of this book has also been published under the title, I AM NOT A ROBOT!
Bruce Hartman's eighth novel, a legal thriller entitled THE DEVIL'S CHAPLAIN, was published in 2018. This book tells the story of a young attorney, Charlotte Ambler, who volunteers to represent a death row inmate, a once-prominent biologist named Christopher Ritter,
Bruce Hartman's first western, LEGEND OF LOST BASIN, was published in September 2024. Kirkus Reviews called it, "A riveting addition to the Western genre... Skillful storytelling and rich characterizations make this a must-read for fans of Westerns or those who just like good storytelling.," The book aims to transcend the western genre into the area of literary fiction. It was Finalist for the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America for Best Traditional Western Novel in 2025. It was also awarded the Peacemaker Award by Western Fictioneers for Best First Western Novel.
His second western to be published was THE DIVIDE, the second book in the Lost West Trilogy.
Prior to those westerns, his most recent book was THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE'S LAST CASE, the third and final book of the Philosphical Detective Trilogy. The previous books are THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE, published in 2014, and THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE RETURNS, published in 2020. All three novels feature the iconic Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges wrestling with an extraordinary series of crimes and the equally baffling conundrums of literature and philosophy, including Zeno's paradoxes, the mind/body problem, and the mysteries of destiny, memory, personal identity and artistic creation. Kirkus Reviews called THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE "a suspenseful, pitch-perfect novel.. an intelligent, original detective novel." Midwest Book Review rated THE PHILOSOPHICAL DETECTIVE RETURNS as "...highly recommended for classic detective story enthusiasts who look for complexity and intellectual challenges in their characters and stories."
Bruce Hartman's previous book, PAROLE, is a crime thriller in the tradition of Elmore Leonard about an unlikely pair of parolees from San Quentin struggling against the odds to recover their lives and fortunes in L.A. If it were a movie, it would probably be classified as an action/comedy/thriller. It has recently become available as an audiobook on Audible.
His first novel, PERFECTLY HEALTHY MAN DROPS DEAD, won the Salvo Press Mystery Novel Award and was published by Salvo Press in 2008. In 2018 it was reissued by Swallow Tail Press in a revised Tenth Anniversary Edition (both paperback and ebook).
Bruce Hartman's second book, THE RULES OF DREAMING, published by Swallow Tail Press in 2013, was awarded Kirkus Star for Books of Exceptional Merit. Kirkus Reviews called it "a mind-bending marriage of ambitious literary theory and classic murder mystery" and selected it as one of its "Top 100 Indie Books of 2013." Another mystery, THE MUSE OF VIOLENCE, was also published in 2013.
Bruce Hartman's seventh novel, POTLATCH: A Comedy, is a satirical comedy set in Philadelphia. Readers' Favorite Book Reviews called it "one of the most amusing reads ever to be published."
POTLATCH is the second entry in a projected trilogy which began with A BUTTERFLY IN PHILADELPHIA. Readers' Favorite Book Reviews called BUTTERFLY "one of the strange comic masterpieces that you're quite lucky to run across once in a very great while."
POTLATCH followed another comic novel, BIG DATA IS WATCHING YOU!, a satirical techno-dystopia set in a future in which the all-powerful force of Big Data rules humanity through the Internet of Things and the corporate power of the FANGs. It is the story of how one defiant customer foils the conspiracy to delete humanity from Google Earth. A slightly revised version of this book has also been published under the title, I AM NOT A ROBOT!
Bruce Hartman's eighth novel, a legal thriller entitled THE DEVIL'S CHAPLAIN, was published in 2018. This book tells the story of a young attorney, Charlotte Ambler, who volunteers to represent a death row inmate, a once-prominent biologist named Christopher Ritter,
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Displaying 1 of 1 review
April 5, 2025
The Divide is a place like the crossroads where you can almost hear Robert Johnson on his knees playing guitar and Papa Legba laughing. It is a place where angels and devils meet, it is a portal into another world. You can go one way or the other, but the decision is final. And as Hartman so eloquently tells us, it is the ragged edge of time. For Elena and Rory it was their coming of age.
Inexperienced with children, Elena accepts the interpretation of an 8-year-old who has visions. She doesn’t realize that like any magician handed a magic wand, it must be wielded intelligently, not expected to work by itself. Haze, the child they have taken on, “has powers from earth and air and the living things that inhabited it and will know how to save Elena & Rory” and how to escape. Although his gifts are nurtured in family for 100 generations, it is merely a belief.
Rory, on his own quest, is very moral, swearing not to kill anyone ever again. He searches, like a little boy, for his father even if he dies trying. Rory wears an amulet from his mother, a ring engraved with a line from the hymn Amazing Grace, I hear that one line as the voice and guitar of Joan Baez: “I once was lost but now I’m found…” And so Elena and Rory, clueless, are crossing the divide into adulthood and a new-found maturity, perhaps to learn that once you've found each other you do not leave each other, you do not split up, because like the ring, the family togetherness is the “ring of life” and must not be broken.
Anything I say will be a “spoiler” so I will urge you to read the book for yourself and form your own opinion. It is not just any old Western. There are many poetic moments in the story juxtaposed with the violence of Nature and Humanity. The divide is a boundary between earth and sky (heaven and hell), matter and spirit, living and dead. The characters are very real: bounty hunters, enslavers, wicked women, and coveters of Elena’s beauty. The hangman’s noose has its own quality wrapped and unwrapped around the neck so often, that it becomes the latchkey to life and death. I am so looking forward to the last part of the trilogy.
Inexperienced with children, Elena accepts the interpretation of an 8-year-old who has visions. She doesn’t realize that like any magician handed a magic wand, it must be wielded intelligently, not expected to work by itself. Haze, the child they have taken on, “has powers from earth and air and the living things that inhabited it and will know how to save Elena & Rory” and how to escape. Although his gifts are nurtured in family for 100 generations, it is merely a belief.
Rory, on his own quest, is very moral, swearing not to kill anyone ever again. He searches, like a little boy, for his father even if he dies trying. Rory wears an amulet from his mother, a ring engraved with a line from the hymn Amazing Grace, I hear that one line as the voice and guitar of Joan Baez: “I once was lost but now I’m found…” And so Elena and Rory, clueless, are crossing the divide into adulthood and a new-found maturity, perhaps to learn that once you've found each other you do not leave each other, you do not split up, because like the ring, the family togetherness is the “ring of life” and must not be broken.
Anything I say will be a “spoiler” so I will urge you to read the book for yourself and form your own opinion. It is not just any old Western. There are many poetic moments in the story juxtaposed with the violence of Nature and Humanity. The divide is a boundary between earth and sky (heaven and hell), matter and spirit, living and dead. The characters are very real: bounty hunters, enslavers, wicked women, and coveters of Elena’s beauty. The hangman’s noose has its own quality wrapped and unwrapped around the neck so often, that it becomes the latchkey to life and death. I am so looking forward to the last part of the trilogy.
Displaying 1 of 1 review