He made sure nobody could tell where he stood.Then it mattered.
The line a child drew through the middle of his country.
Austin, 2028. The constitutional case of the century, and a lawyer who has never taken a side.
Austin, 2028. Civil litigator Santiago DelTorro has spent his career arguing both sides of an argument without appearing to favor either. It has made him effective. It has made him careful. It has made him, in ways he doesn't yet understand, unprepared for the moment that asks him to choose.
When a data scientist surfaces evidence of an eight-year federal conspiracy targeting six states, and a Texas Attorney General two years ahead of everyone else hands Santiago the constitutional case of the century, the country begins to fracture along a line that was always there. Six governors sign. Six states leave. And Santiago becomes the public face of the argument at the exact moment the country can no longer look away.
He will lose his fiancée. He won't see it coming.
A nine-year-old boy named Wyatt has been updating his map. Green for yes. Blue for no. Gray for the ones that haven't decided. He told his mother: the gray states can still decide.
He hasn't learned to stop believing the obvious thing yet. Divided Houses is the first novel in The Union Trilogy.
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Questions readers ask
What is Divided Houses about?
Divided Houses is a legal thriller set in Austin in 2028. A civil litigator named Santiago DelTorro is handed evidence that the federal government spent eight years targeting six states, and the constitutional case that follows breaks the country along a line that was always there. Six governors sign. Six states leave. It is Book One of the Union Trilogy.
Is Divided Houses political?
It is a book about politics that does not take a side. No character in it is right because of the party he belongs to, and the ending hands a win to neither half of the country. A reader looking to have their own position confirmed will not find it here. That is the point of the book.
Is Divided Houses based on real events?
No. The conspiracy is invented, the six states are invented, and every person in the book is invented. What is not invented is the distance between what Americans believe about each other and what they actually say when asked, which is on the map on this site, state by state.
What order do the Union Trilogy books go in?
Divided Houses is first, Silent Tables second, Open Doors third. Divided Houses is out now. Silent Tables is being written and has no release date yet.
Is there a free sample of Divided Houses?
Yes. Both opening chapters, about twenty-four hundred words, are on this site with no email required. The first three chapters, about fourteen thousand words, come as a PDF to anyone who joins the mailing list.
How long is Divided Houses, and what should a reader know going in?
About seventy-three thousand words. A federal officer is killed off the page, a city burns, and a woman walking home does not reach her door. There is no sexual content.