El Diablo

About the Book

El Diablo is the story of Ben Smith, a young man who witnesses the murders of his family members and embarks on a journey of revenge. On the road, though, he learns that all the things he thought he knew are not exactly as they seemed, and that sometimes hate can be overwhelmed by love.

About the Author

G.A. (Art) Bartel was born in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in 1923. He spent Saturday afternoons at local movie theaters where for ten cents he acquired a taste for westerns that he’s never lost. Bartel left the University of Iowa to enlist in the Army after Pearl Harbor. He was a Ranger in Europe, where he was wounded twice, won the Silver and Bronze Stars for valor, and spent nine months in the hospital recovering from his wounds. After the war, he returned to Council Bluffs, where he currently lives with his wife, Colleen. Their three sons were entertained on family camping trips by tales of their father’s life as a cowboy. Art’s son Tom has been a newspaper and magazine editor and publisher in Minneapolis for thirty years. His love for story telling came both from his father and from all the books he read on the camping trips while his father and brothers were off riding those stupid horses. He lives in Minneapolis with his wife Kristin. They have two children, Matt and Jane, who both provide constant amusement to their loving parents.