Texas 1866: The Century's Ignition
(2026)(Book 18 in the Elias Burrell series)
A novel by Robert Hanlon
The Sabine Valley is drowning in oil, poisoned by lethal gas, and surrounded by men prepared to burn it clean rather than surrender control of the coming petroleum age. The Burrells cannot save their land, but they can make certain the men who destroyed it do not escape the fire.
A catastrophic blowout has shattered the Slash B, killed livestock, contaminated the water, and left Tom Caldwell and the remaining ranch hands injured and exhausted. Clara Burrell soon discovers that the disaster was no accident: industrialist Ignatius Reed ordered the casing fractured, knowing the resulting gas would force the valley’s evacuation and allow the Chicago Coal Trust to erase every trace of its crimes.
Reed arrives with armored motor trucks, electric floodlights, fraudulent federal authority, and dozens of armed contractors. His plan is brutally simple—trap the valley families behind a false quarantine, ignite the crude, and blame their deaths on the well. With the roads watched and neighboring families bribed into silence, Clara, Arthur Murphy, Tom, and a handful of battered defenders must confront weapons and machines unlike anything the Burrell legacy has ever faced.
The old methods are no longer enough. Colts and legal writs have given way to combustion engines, trench guns, electrical power, and industrial warfare, forcing Clara to transform the poisoned terrain itself into a weapon. If Reed wants the valley burned to protect his empire, the Burrells will decide where the flames begin—and who remains inside when the century ignites.
Ride into The Century’s Ignition, the eighteenth Blood Reunion adventure, and witness the violent birth of a new American age, where oil is worth more than land, corporations command private armies, and one family’s final stand may bring an industrial empire crashing down.
Genre: Western
A catastrophic blowout has shattered the Slash B, killed livestock, contaminated the water, and left Tom Caldwell and the remaining ranch hands injured and exhausted. Clara Burrell soon discovers that the disaster was no accident: industrialist Ignatius Reed ordered the casing fractured, knowing the resulting gas would force the valley’s evacuation and allow the Chicago Coal Trust to erase every trace of its crimes.
Reed arrives with armored motor trucks, electric floodlights, fraudulent federal authority, and dozens of armed contractors. His plan is brutally simple—trap the valley families behind a false quarantine, ignite the crude, and blame their deaths on the well. With the roads watched and neighboring families bribed into silence, Clara, Arthur Murphy, Tom, and a handful of battered defenders must confront weapons and machines unlike anything the Burrell legacy has ever faced.
The old methods are no longer enough. Colts and legal writs have given way to combustion engines, trench guns, electrical power, and industrial warfare, forcing Clara to transform the poisoned terrain itself into a weapon. If Reed wants the valley burned to protect his empire, the Burrells will decide where the flames begin—and who remains inside when the century ignites.
Ride into The Century’s Ignition, the eighteenth Blood Reunion adventure, and witness the violent birth of a new American age, where oil is worth more than land, corporations command private armies, and one family’s final stand may bring an industrial empire crashing down.
Genre: Western
Used availability for Robert Hanlon's Texas 1866: The Century's Ignition