Cover art by Ardy M. Scott

The Storks of La Caridad
Twilight Times Books

Father Ygnacio Pfefferkorn, a missionary stationed in northwestern Mexico, is expelled with all Jesuits in 1767. After ten years of prison, eight in Spain, he is incarcerated in La Caridad Monastery and befriended by Brother Eugenio, scribe, Father Plácido, choirmaster, and Father Leopoldo, instructor of boys.

La Caridad is locked in conflict with the bishop of Ciudad Rodrigo to determine jurisdiction over Robledillo, a rich parish. Two murders are committed and an ancient charter, granting the monastery perpetual jurisdiction over neighboring lands and villages, is stolen. The abbot recruits Ygnacio to solve the murders and recover the charter.

"Brilliantly written and thoroughly researched, this book explores the complexities and contradictions of the Church during this time period. The political struggles in the monastery ring with realism, as do the actions of the characters. The age-old struggle between good and evil is evident, but the division between the two is muddied by ulterior motives."
-- Reviewed by Joyce Handzo for In the Library Reviews

"'La Caridad' works on two levels. First, it's a rollicking mystery, full of plot twists based on real events, interesting characters modeled after historical figures and more than its share of red herrings, mostly invented by Weinberg. Second, it's a scholarly recreation of 18th century from the dress to the architecture to the food, thoroughly researched and seamlessly written. And let's just say that Weinberg knows her Spanish Inquisition and her colonial Catholicism."
-- Reviewed by Steve Bennett, The San Antonio Express (Read the entire review)

"The Storks of La Caridad is beautifully written, as well as meticulously researched. It will grip its readers, shock them, and confound them. Along the way, much valuable and accurate history will be painlessly assimilated. Perhaps this is the art of historical mystery writing at its best. The Storks of La Caridad is a must-read!"
-- The Midwest Book Review (Read the entire review on Amazon)

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The Roman bridge across the Agueda River in Ciudad Rodrigo. Still in daily use.

Cover art by Ardy M. Scott

Apache Lance, Franciscan Cross
Twilight Times Books
* WILLA Literary Award Finalist, 2006
* 2007 New Mexico Book Award Finalist in two categories: Best Historical Fiction and Best Book on the Southwest.

In the year 1731, three Franciscan missions are struggling to establish themselves on the San Antonio River despite Apache raids. The story explores a crucial time in San Antonio history, featuring courageous settlers, missionaries, Indian converts and fierce Apache attacks.

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"Apache Lance, Franciscan Cross is a riveting novel of historical fiction about a Franciscan Friar, Fray Marcos, and an Apache woman warrior, Ahuila.... If you like historical novels, you will love Apache Lance, Franciscan Cross. But even more, if you appreciate a fine historical novel built on absolutely faultless research, Apache Lance, Franciscan Cross will draw you in as surely as a hummingbird is drawn to its blossom. This is a fine example of the genre, one of the best of its kind."
-- The Midwest Book Review (Read the full review on Amazon.)

Seven Cities of Mud
Twilight Times Books

This powerful historical novel is closely based on the scribal report by Hernán Gallegos, a literate Spanish soldier who recorded his version of the entrada, designed to gain him the governorship of the territory he named Nuevo México. The novel is written from two points of view, the Spanish and the Pueblo Indian. The Indian perspective, seen through the eyes of Poli (Butterfly), the young woman who guides the expedition, is constructed through research into the early Pueblo culture and into contemporary Hopi religion and culture.

Two radically different cultures, 16th-century Spanish and ancient Pueblo Indian, collide. Franciscan Fray Agustín Rodriguez leads an expedition to evangelize the Pueblo Indians of the Río Grande. The group, by contrast to Coronado's moving village of over 2,000 souls, totals thirty-one people: three Franciscans, nine soldiers under the command of Francisco Sánchez, known as Chamuscado, and nineteen servants. The Franciscans persuade Poli, a widowed Pueblo woman, to be their guide. She consents in order to escape a forced marriage to a warrior she suspects of having murdered her husband. Shortly after the expedition makes contact with the Pueblos, Captain Chamuscado and the soldiers mutiny, taking charge and making prisoners of the Franciscans. The expedition becomes a gold and silver hunt and, far from evangelizing the natives, their pueblos are broken into, the inhabitants brutalized. Conflicts and passions explode: love and faith oppose anger, brutality, hatred, lust, greed and ambition, with tragic consequences.

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See also my scholarly article about the expedition under the title, "History or Mostly Myth? Caveat lector! Discrepancies In Scholarly Accounts of the Chamuscado Expedition, 1581-1582." This article, delivered at the Historical Society of New Mexico, might whet your appetite.

Father Ygnacio Pfefferkorn, SJ (click image for a larger copy)

Forthcoming Book: Sonora Moonlight, Sonora, 1761-62: Father Ygnacio Pfefferkorn, SJ, suffering from acute malaria, is transferred to a new mission, Guevavi in present-day Arizona. Healed by a Pima medicine man: Jevho and his half-Pima, half-Irish nurse-assistant Patricia O'Meara, he becomes obsessed with converting Jevho to Christianity. A grisly murder by beheading and crucifixion is discovered near the mission, and Ygnacio sets about solving the crime, fearing his mission Indians will be blamed. Suspects abound in the small Irish ranching community and among Jevho's people, and Ygnacio repeatedly risks his life in pursuit of the murderer. Patricia, in love with both the priest and Jevho, must choose between cultures, native or European. Meanwhile, Ygnacio builds up the mission but his superiors fear he is too flexible in accepting native beliefs and practices, too influenced by the medicine man. Ygnacio wonders why his converts spend so much time away from the mission. Storm clouds gather….

Release date is expected to be September 15.