Anahuac – My Review

Anahuac – My Review

The defendant is presumed innocent. The indictment is not evidence of guilt. The state’s burden is to prove guilt beyond a “reasonable doubt,” not all doubt. The jury is the judge of the credibility of the witnesses. The key words were in the circumstantial evidence paragraph.

Anahuac by author William Darling main foundation is a fast-paced journey of showing readers how small-town Texas law really worked in the 1970s. The story starts off with Sarita Jo Franklin, who was well known as a strong woman who didn’t back down from anyone. Immediately, I was drawn to her character, so much so that when she was killed off it left me longing to know more about her, but alas the author took me on another journey. Finding her true killer or did he?

That journey was well crafted into how small-town Texas justice really works. The larger than life character of Reverend Randall Clay who is accused of murdering Sarita fills pages with his devotions and beliefs in God, as well as his followers establishing New Jerusalem in the tiny town of Anahuac.

As Clay is indicted for the murder, the story begins to tell about the lives of the lawyers who were hired to defend Clay in the murder. The story goes into the details of their own insecurities as lawyers, friends, and spouses. I love the side story of Aurora and Cooper, who are the wives of the lawyers. You get a really good sense of how hard it was for them to be professional women even in the 1970s.

History, crime, and religion are richly interwoven in Anahuac. If you love fictional crime history with some truth added to it then you’ll love this book. My only problems with the book were with formatting and some proofreading. Overall, Darling’s story-telling voice shines in this fast-paced book giving you a sense of how small Texas town justice really worked and possibly is still evident today, along with just enough information to care about the characters.