Book Review-The River of Corn: Spanish Conquistadors Clash with Native Americans- John Rose Putnam

Although this is a novel it is, as far as I can tell, based on what could possibly have happened when the Spanish came to the shores of the New World looking for gold. They brought with them deceit, cruelty and could not have cared less about anyone--all they wanted was gold. This is the story of how the Chicora out smarted the Spanish with the help of a Moorish slave. It is a brilliant tale told in a way that will grip you and not let go. You will cheer for the Chicora as they not only outwit the Spanish but also their arch enemies.

Both history buffs and suspense readers alike will love this book!


About the Book: (from Amazon)

America was a far different place in 1540 when Hernando de Soto and 600 Spanish conquistadors crossed the Savannah River into what is now South Carolina, and thus entered the empire of the Chicora, the largest and most powerful Native Indian civilization in the American Southeast. While Cofitachique, the lost city of the Chicora, is regarded as the gem of Southern archaeology, no trace of it has yet been found.

The beautiful Queen who led the Chicora took Soto to a huge temple sitting high above a river. Adorned with pearls and seashells, it was filled with the remains of the honored Chicora dead. But Soto and the Spanish could not find the gold they craved. Food was in short supply. Tensions grew between the natives and the invaders. In order to prevent a war the Queen offered a supply of corn from a nearby city if the Spanish would leave her realm. Soto agreed but then took the Queen hostage and headed for the Blue Mountains of the Chalaque.

Meanwhile the Chalaque, blood enemies of the Chicora, plotted to take over the fertile fields along the River of Corn that flowed past the city of Cofitachique. As soon as the Spanish invaders left the land of the Chicora, the Chalaque would attack from their villages near the Blue Mountains and take for their own the bounty of the River of Corn. This was a time of great trouble for the Chicora

A great civilization led by a beautiful queen, a magnificent temple covered in pearls, a ruthless conquistador lusting for gold, who were the Chicora? What happened to them?

Read a chapter or two here

Purchase the Book here

About the Author: (from Amazon)

John came west as a young man and settled in Berkeley where he graduated from the University of California. He still lives and writes there and often gives a talk on the California gold rush to the gang at the Freight and Salvage.

He spent a lot of time digging into that gold rush too and many of his stories take place back then. John's characters are so real they'll jump right off the page and talk to you; his villains have hearts as cold as midnight and his heroes almost always do the right thing in the end.

He's working up quite a reputation for his knowledge of that era too. His blog, My Gold Rush Tales, attracted the interest of some TV folks and he appeared in a segment for the Travel Channel about Henry Meiggs, the man who built San Francisco's famous Fisherman's Wharf.

While his first novel, Hangtown Creek, a story of adventure, romance, and coming of age in the early days of the gold rush, was published in 2011, his brand new book, Into the Face of the Devil, moves between Hangtown and the sawmill where James Marshall first found gold, and pits a young man in love for the first time against a killer so evil he could pass for Satan.

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