Genl Richard Taylor offers his insights of the "late unpleasantness". Unlike too many other popular civil war personalities who wrote first-hand accounts, Taylor usually avoids the name-calling and back-stabbing others seem to readily participate in. His immediate supervisor, Genl Edmund Kirby Smith,however, doesn't fare too well by Taylor's standards. Taylor holds Smith responsible for failing to allow him the necessary reinforcements needed to route Banks in the Red River Campaign (North Louisiana). Taylor indeed offers a unique perspective, as the son of Zachary Taylor, as well as having served in the Eastern and Western Theaters. A well-bred, highly educated man, Taylor's writing is filled with allusions to Classic Literature and military folk-lore, which is often muddlesome. Also annoying is the lack of ANY maps -a real problem when discussion of the various bayous, rivers and small towns fill page after page. Definately recommended for those of Confederate ilk - especially his remarks on post-war happenings.

i like the author a lot and the story, pace and writing style were good.

I liked this book, but it pales in comparison to Patterson's later works. Adam Shaw is a young lawyer employed in his father-in-law's firm who is asked to drop off a document to his friends, Lydia and Henry Cantwell. Shaw finds the murdered body of Mrs. Cantwell, and then discovers the document he was delivering was the latest edition of her last will and testament. The prime suspects in the murder are the husband whose alibi is he was out of town for the night, and their psychotic son, Jason, whose girlfriend says he was with her all night.
Nothing is as it seems from this point; there's much more than meets the eye in all of the characters' secrets and so forth. Eventually three people end up dead by the time the crime is solved. The true culprit is somewhat of a surprise, although the character's presence in the book is never really likeable. The showdown at the end is somewhat contrived, but it serves its purpose.
If you're a true Patterson fan, this book will please you but savor his later efforts.
RECOMMENDED (SLIGHTLY)

One of his early books, a bit scattered in character development and missing his usual insightful dialogue. He mixes past and present in the same paragraph/scene and you must re-read parts to figure out where he is in the story line.
Shaw basically spends the entire book in his car chasing the plot twists back & forth! There are so many minor bits & pieces that pop back up, it's a book that needs an index. I've read most of his stuff but this one almost doesn't come together till late. Not his best but he's good enough to make it worthwhile...

If your real interest is in the true origins of Freemasonry, this isn't the book for you.

Instead, I recommend that you read 'The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590-1710', by David Stevenson.

Stevenson's book is the only work on the origins of Freemasonry I have ever seen that ignores the movement's vast myth-making literature (which includes everything Albert Pike wrote) and focuses instead on the surviving records of the earliest known masonic lodges. Stevenson--who teaches history at the University of St. Andrews--paints a solid, sober, believable portrait of Freemasonry's rather prosaic origins in the operative masonic lodges of early 17th-century Scotland.

His study is a welcome and refreshing antidote to all the junk that has been written about Freemasonry in the past three centuries. It explodes Masonic authors' extravagant claims for an origin in ancient civilizations and possession of power supernatural secrets. It also undermines anti-Masonic authors' equally bizarre accusations of pacts with supernatural forces of evil. It replaces these fanciful images with the story of a remarkable human institution whose recent, humble, workaday origins are far more interesting than its myths.

If you only read one book about Freemasonry in your lifetime, that book should be David Stevenson's 'The Origins of Freemasonry: Scotland's Century, 1590-1710'.

While the premise of this book is laudable, and Rev. Carlson deserves every slap on the hand he gets for his many prevarications in the name of God, Mr. Thorn's book is nearly identical to an earlier book by A. DeHoyos, "The Cloud of Prejudice." Interested parties should get both books and judge for themselves whether Mr. Thorn has acted questionably.

Richard Thorn's book presents what amounts to the party line from Masonry. He was both diplomatic and polite to the religious right - something worthy of praise.

It is sad that, in the name of their G_d, the religious right can 'bear false witness against their neighbor.' Fortunately the secular society in which we live - there being a wall of seperation between church and state - allows BOTH thinking and believing to exist in the same communities.

You must question the taste of someone who thinks Bill Miller and Luther's(the McDonald's of BBQ) sell great food. He clearly has a preference for aseptic chain restaurants. In the words of the late, great Stubb; "rats and roaches are God's creatures, too." I guess that is why Stubb's wasn't even reviewed. If you want good Texas barbeque, you can't go to the place with the highest Health Dept. rating. You also don't go someplace because they have good tea.

The author of this book obviously doesn't know much about barbeque, or much about beans either. It is amazing how he gives high marks to some places, like chain barbeques, that have very substandard fare, and doesn't even mention real barbeque places with good food right down the road from them. The reviews of barbeque joints in this book are not to be trusted by serious barbeque lovers.

I am French, so the barbecue pits of Texas is like another world to me. I loved reading about the adventures of Richard and Willie Joe as they ventured through the Texan plains in their quest for the perfect barbecue. Although this book is considered a restaurant guide, it is really so much more! It is a story of an adventure and devotion, throwing caution to the wind and seeking the perfect object of one's love--barbecue.

Those living in or thinking of visiting Texas will certainly find this guide useful. But readers like me will still enjoy, even through a book, the travels experienced while in search of the best barbecue in Texas!