Anahuac (A Texas Story) - Softcover

Darling, William Duane

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1974645401 ISBN 13: 9781974645404

Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2017

Synopsis

The Anahuac of 1972 is more than just an isolated outpost on Texas’s Trinity Bay – it’s a place where greed and justice uncomfortably intermingle, where the evangelical fervor of charismatic preachers resonate, where blacks and whites navigate a fragile co-existence, and where a murder leads to even darker mysteries than murder. Jim Ward, introduced in Morgan’s Point as a young, idealistic Houston prosecutor, returns in Anahuac as an older, more conflicted, more complicated man, coming to Anahuac to defend a man who appears guilty of a horrible crime. His discoveries lead to entanglements in the very nature of good and evil, in a town steeped in a history that is unexpectedly but definitively drawing Ward in its narrative web.

About this title

About the Author:

William D. Darling is a lifelong storyteller and very nearly a native Texan, arriving in his beloved state as an infant in 1942. His first novel, Morgan’s Point, introduced readers to both the mid-‘60s rough-and-tumble world of the Houston courts where Darling came of age, and the Galveston Bay region that has long fascinated him. His latest novel, Anahuac, serves as a sequel to Morgan’s Point as well as its own fascinating tale. Darling, who has lived within the legislative bustle of Washington, D.C. and in the peace of a Central Texas ranch, currently resides in Austin, where he and his wife have built a long-standing law practice.

Review:

"It's worth seeking out for those who occasionally find the Texas criminal-justice system as entertaining as it is infuriating . . . Darling, an assistant district attorney in mid-'60s Houston, writes with a good-ol'-boy gentility that cuts through the legalese."
 
- Houston Chronicle 
"Austin writer William D. Darling's second novel, Anahuac, is an entertaining, engrossing legal thriller that offers both darkly humorous and good-natured thrusts at life, love, and law . . . first-rate reading, especially for readers who enjoy legal thrillers, lawyer procedurals, suspense, Texas settings, and characters who live large."
 
- Lone Star Literary Life 
"History, crime, and religion are richly interwoven in Anahuac, [in which] Darling's story-telling voice shines. If you love fictional crime history with some truth added to it then you'll love this fast-paced journey showing readers how small-town Texas law really worked in the 1970s."
 
- Forgotten Winds 
"All of the characters in Anahuac are well-crafted and fascinating including an eccentric and independent ranch woman, an evangelical preacher with a shady business manager, an old man with old money, and a small-town sheriff with a big hold over the town. Despite a large cast, Darling does an outstanding job of defining the players and making each unique and memorable and familiar to readers. Readers get not only a clear visual but a peek at what makes these multi-layered characters tick.
 
The plot was unexpected and unconventional and a real delight . . . Anahuac is a top-notch story, and the story deserves a full five stars."
 
- Hall Ways

About this edition

• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Publication date: 2017
• ISBN 10: 1974645401
• ISBN 13: 9781974645404
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 244