BOOK BEAT: Computer-generated imaging helps tell the full story of … – Brazosport Facts
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Battleground Bexar: The 1835 Siege of San Antonio
By Richard L. Curilla
Texas A&M University Press
$49.95, hardcover
The famous siege and fall of the Alamo in 1836 is the stuff of legends. What is often missing from most discussion. of that battle is why the Texian defenders were in the Alamo in the first place.
Richard L. Curilla’s pathbreaking book, “Battleground Béxar,” shows how the famous compound that has become such a Texas icon was just a small piece of the strategic real estate that now composes downtown San Antonio.
In 1835, Mexican Centralist soldados faced a deteriorating political situation in the region and the very real threat of an insurgent attack by the Texan Federalist Army of the People. They fortified the main plazas in the frontier town of Béxar to meet the attack they knew must certainly come.
Today, where traffic and pedestrians compete for the right of way once stood cannon, earthworks and barricades that transformed streets and blocks of downtown San Antonio into a stronghold.
Using advanced computer-generated imaging, Curilla has recreated San Antonio de Béxar as it looked in 1835. Now, for the first time ever, the location of the Alamo and its role as an important garrison and artillery position covering the approaches to the heart of the town is revealed.
Mexican Centralist troops reinforced and modified the old mission compound and transformed it into a fortress they believed they could defend. The Siege of Béxar in December 1835 created the battleground and circumstances that would shape the destiny of Texas forever.
Beginning with the Siege of Bexar, this beautifully illustrated, oversized book continues through 18 chapters to cover in some detail the history of the Texas Revolution through the surrender of Mexican forces, and then continues on to Texas’s future.
The Body in the Garden
By Katharine Schellman
Crooked Lane Books
$26.95, hardcover
It is 1815, and in London, newly widowed Lily Adler is returning to a society that frowns on independent women, but she is determined to create a meaningful life for herself — even without a husband.
She’s no stranger to the glittering world of London’s upper crust, and at a ball thrown by her oldest friend, Lady Walter, she expects scandal, gossip and secrets.
What she doesn’t expect is the body that has been found in Lady Walter’s garden.
Mere minutes before he was shot, Lily had overheard the man, who was both young and desperate, attempting blackmail. But until Lord Walter bribes the investigating magistrate to drop the case, she’s willing to leave the matter to the local constables. Stunned and confused, Lily realizes she’s the only one with the key to catching the killer.
Aided by a roguish navy captain and a mysterious heiress from the West Indies, Lily sets out to discover whether her friend’s husband is mixed up in blackmail and murder.
The unlikely team tries to conceal their investigation behind the whirl of London’s social season, but the dead man knew secrets about people with power — secrets they would kill to keep hidden.
Now, Lily will have to uncover the truth, before she becomes the murderer’s next target.
This one contains a number of plot twists that tend to deceive the unsuspecting reader, as well as a protagonist whose antics will keep them guessing.
An overlong introduction is mainly overcome as the story continues, and I enjoyed both the plot twists and the banter between some of the characters.
Two-Way Murder
By E.C.R. Lorac
$14.99, paperback
It is a dark and misty night (isn’t it always?) and bachelors Nicholas and lan are driving to the ball at Fordings, a beautiful concert hall in the countryside.
There waits the charming Dilys Maine and a party buzzing with rumors of one Rosemary Reeve, who disappeared on the eve of this event the previous year, not found to this day.
With thoughts of the mysterious case ringing in their ears, Dilys and Nicholas strike a stranger with their car on the drive back home, launching a new investigation and unwittingly reviving the search for what really became of Rosemary Reeve.
All the hallmarks of the Golden Age mystery are here in this previously unpublished novel by E.C.R. Lora, boasting the author’s characteristically detailed sense of setting and gripping police work.
E.C.R. Lorac was a pen name of Edith Caroline Rivett (1894-1958), who was a prolific writer of crime fiction from the 1930s to the 1950s and member of the prestigious Detection Club.
Her books have been almost entirely neglected since her death but deserve rediscovery as fine examples of classic British crime fiction in its golden age.
The manuscript for this book, which is set in the 1950s, was found in the author’s effects following her death. It is the first publication of this stand-alone novel, rather than part of the series featuring the author’s Inspector MacDonald.
When the car is discovered abandoned in the foggy night, Brent has disappeared, and the police must determine whether this is a case of an accident caused primarily by the heavy fog of the night or if it was a crime planned well beforehand.
In his investigation of this Golden Age mystery, Inspector Waring’s determination of what actually happened is hampered by local residents, who are all-too determined to keep what they know to themselves.
According to one source, the author wrote this book near the end of her life, and its style, most particularly in the sense of atmosphere, is clearly visible.
I thoroughly enjoyed it.
Marie Beth Jones is a published author and freelance writer based in Angleton. Contact her at 979-849-5467 or marieb.jones32@gmail.com.
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